The Harem Route
by Racke
Summary: Kagami is faced with some love-issues. What will happen?
1. An Ordinary Day

The Harem Route

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

First Chapter

---

Kagami awoke to a very ordinary day. Well, at least it started out pretty ordinarily, so she figured that it'd probably stay that way. Hopefully Konata wouldn't do something to ruin it, although she did sort of enjoy the attention.

Waking up and silencing the alarm clock – contrary to what Misao might claim, there was no violence involved in this process – she continued with her normal routine before making her way towards the kitchen, and breakfast.

Tsukasa had barely gotten out of bed by the time that they had to leave – which wasn't really all that unusual – so she hadn't had much time to eat anything. This got on Kagami's nerves, not because she was a very proper person and got mad when people did such things, but rather simply that Tsukasa was complaining about being hungry the entire way towards school.

When they met up with Konata, who looked as if she'd stayed up all night – also not something that was very unusual, even if it was annoying – but was still quick to crack a joke about Tsukasa being 'clearly related to Kagamin' after hearing her stomach growl quite loudly.

All in all, it was a very ordinary start to Kagami's day.

I'm sure that you believe that something happened that wasn't ordinary during this day. Admittedly there was _one_ event that was indeed a bit unusual.

At one point during lunch, Kagami retreated from the others, it was Konata's fault, no need to go into details. She found herself instead eating together with Misao and Ayano, who were happy to have her company, Misao might have said something about a midget, but Kagami wasn't really paying her that much attention.

Even this unusual event was very much a normal thing. There was _nothing_ extraordinary about this day.

Until class ended and she realized that she'd forgotten to bring an umbrella.

_This is bad. There's no way that Tsukasa brought an umbrella, and I don't know anyone else that are going our way, what should I do?_ Kagami sighed. _Maybe we could stay at a friend's house? But whose?_

"Hiiragi!" Misao tackled her, it was more of an annoying thing to do than a dangerous one, "Did you forget to bring an umbrella?" the fanged girl actually looked _hopeful_ at the thought, she really was a weird one.

"Yes," there was no point in denying it.

"Do you want to share mine?"

"Aren't our houses in different directions?" she looked at Misao, wondering if she ever thought things through.

"That's fine! We can play some videogames at your house while we're there!"

_Maybe she __**did**__ think this one through… although, that probably shouldn't be nearly as unsettling as it actually is._

---

It was a bit awkward to share an umbrella with Misao – Tsukasa had decided to follow Miyuki home, so at least Kagami didn't have any feelings of guilt – this was mostly due to how the fanged girl kept clinging to her, in a quite similar way to a certain otaku.

They didn't really talk about anything noteworthy, and although there was some talk about homework, it was usually Kagami scolding the other girl for not doing it properly.

When they finally arrived at the Hiiragi residence Misao immediately picked up a videogame, clearly intent on not letting the strict girl force her into studying.

In the end, it didn't take very much of an effort to pry Kagami away from her homework. She was tired from studying as well, and it was sort of entertaining to wipe the floor with Misao at something that didn't really require too much brain capacity – the proof of that statement can be found by Konata being Konata.

Time passed and Kagami found herself getting more and more sleepy, she realized that the reason for this when she looked at the clock.

"It's this late!?" Misao looked up from the manga she'd been reading, surprised by her sudden outburst.

"What's the matter Hiiragi?" the fanged girl got to her feet to see what had upset Kagami.

"Look at the clock! It's already dark outside!" Misao seemed to be unable to understand why this was so upsetting to her, so she continued, "How are you supposed to get home!?"

"Ah," she'd finally realized it. "Going out now would be kind of bad, wouldn't it?" she laughed a little, and then suddenly lit up. "Hey Hiiragi."

"What?" couldn't she see that she was busy panicking at the moment?

"Do you think I could sleep over?"

Kagami blinked.

"Oh… yeah," she could feel her face heat up with the embarrassment from not realizing this _very_ simple solution earlier.

And so they began to prepare for bed, Misao used her toothbrush without permission, much to Kagami's annoyance. A futon was located for the guest, as well as a t-shirt to sleep in.

This was how a very ordinary day ended. Tsukasa was staying over at Miyuki's, and Misao was sleeping in Kagami's room.

Clearly, this was not an ordinary day. _Where did it start to become an unusual day?_ Kagami couldn't tell. _It had had something to do with rain, and an umbrella…_her train of thought was brought to an end with a yawn. _Oh well, it's not like it's __**that**__ weird or anything._

The world faded to black as Kagami gently drifted off to sleep.

---(Konata POV)

There was a disturbance.

The scene of a beautiful face surrounded by long purple hair spread out across soft pillows, began to fade. The disturbance was destroying it, replacing it with that terrible 'beeping' noise.

The disturbance must _die_!

Her hand slammed down hard, very hard, and the disturbance stopped.

Konata opened her eyes, determined to inspect the damage to the disturbance. Simply disappearing was not enough, no, for the crimes it had committed it must be severely punished.

It was time to get up. That's what the alarm clock told her the moment that she opened her sleepy eyes.

_Stupid alarm clock, disturbing such a wonderful scene, I should have you destroyed._ Konata though to herself. Still a bit peeved at being interrupted when she was finally getting to a good part. _I worked hard for that damn it!_

She sighed, or she _would_ have sighed, but it ended up as a sleepy yawn instead. She wasn't the fastest to get out of bed in the morning. Climbing out of bed, she began her morning routine, which consisted of a _lot_ of yawning.

Finally, it was time to go to school. Minami had stopped by earlier to pick up Yutaka, Konata wasn't sure if they started their school day earlier, or if there was some other reason. _Like a secret rendezvous or something._ The though made her chuckle a little, maybe she'd tell Hiyori about this, she was _bound_ to get an interesting reaction.

The way to school was the same as always, until where she was supposed to meet up with the others.

"Hiiragi please marry me!" her response was receiving a bump on the head.

"No way, I don't plan on being forced to put up with you for the rest of my life."

"That's so cold! Even though we slept together!" a blush spread across Kagami's face.

"We slept in the same _room_! Stop saying things that will make people misunderstand!"

The scene made Konata stop dead in her tracks.

_What's going on? Why is __**she**__ here? What's this about sleeping together? _Konata was very confused. Not to mention shocked.

"Ah, Konata!" Kagami finally noticed her and began to move towards her.

Shaking her head a little in order to clear out her jumbled thoughts Konata waved at the two girls. "Good morning Kagamin!" she didn't mention the other girl's name. She'd never really gotten along with her. It was a mutual thing, though Misao seemed more outspoken about it. Which probably had something to do with being a sore loser if you asked Konata.

It was soon explained that Misao had spent the night at Kagami's house, whilst Tsukasa had spent hers with Miyuki, explaining why she wasn't together with her overprotective elder sister.

They met up with those two a bit later, both of them seemed a little embarrassed whenever anyone asked what they'd been doing yesterday, but always ended with saying that they 'didn't do anything in particular'. It was suspicious, but Konata had other concerns.

_How close is that fanged girl to __**my**__ Kagamin?_ She'd never thought that she'd be forced to recognize Misao as an actual rival. _Damn it, I can't let this continue, Kagamin is mine! I won't hand her over to someone else!_

And so, she grabbed Kagami's hand and began to drag her towards school. The usually strict girl looked a little uncomfortable but at the same time she seemed caught in a strange mix of resignation and relief.

---(Kagami POV)

It'd been a very trying morning for Kagami.

Waking up she'd been surprised to discover a futon on her floor, not to mention the scantily clad girl lying in it. Apparently Misao was the kind of person who, given the chance, undressed in her sleep. It was a very… erotic sight. Not that Kagami had felt anything except embarrassment and confusion.

It had been hard to wake the fanged girl up, she'd kept turning around mumbling about 'five more minutes', until Kagami, frustrated beyond what she thought was possible as far as waking people up goes, grabbed her ankle and _dragged_ her out of the futon.

The sudden impact with the cold floor – it was a futon so it's not like it was dangerous – seemed to be enough to wake her up. But she was still forced to yell at her for a while before Misao finally realized that she needed to get up, get dressed _and_ eat breakfast before they left for school, and that she couldn't sleep during this process.

Kagami had had some trouble with her own morning routine since she wasn't used to spending so much time trying to wake another person up. Misao on the other hand became her own usual hyperactive self the moment breakfast was served, Kagami wished that she could've stayed in her – annoying, but not _quite_ as annoying as she could be once she'd regained her forgotten power of speech – sleep mode for a little longer.

The road to school was the same as most mornings, except for Misao's constant talking, it was starting to give her a bit of a headache. Not that she didn't like Misao – she was a decent person most of the time – it was just that it was hard to survive large doses of her at once.

They'd been arguing most of the way, and when she finally spotted Konata it was a surprising relief. Usually it made her headache grow worse whenever the girl appeared, but this time it disappeared, probably happy to have things go back to normal.

It didn't really go back to normal though, Misao was still there, trying to cling to her. She seemed to be having problems though, Konata actually seemed to be fighting her off. Why she was doing that, who knows? But it was a welcome relief to be able to put a little distance between her and the hyperactive girl.

When they met up with Miyuki and Tsukasa they were greeted with a bit of confusion at Misao's presence. Kagami could hardly blame them, she _was_ very confusing, and she'd forgotten to tell Tsukasa how she'd gotten home.

Konata asked a few strange questions to the duo, but she seemed distracted by something. Kagami couldn't really pay attention either, she was busy trying to hold Misao at arms length.

Suddenly someone grabbed her hand and began to drag her towards school, away from the others, she was a little surprised at Konata's sudden eagerness to reach the school, but she was also a little relieved to be freed from the weirdness of her morning. So, she resigned herself to a fate of being dragged around, and simply followed her without raising any argument.

---

The rest of the day passed as usual, much to Kagami's relief, normality was seriously underrated. There is just so much a person can take of oddities before they start breaking down, and Kagami felt that she was having a bit too much 'oddness' in her life recently.

The only real difference this day had been Misao being louder than usual when Kagami had gone off to eat lunch with the others, also there had been a lot of innuendos of her 'sleeping with Misao only to throw her away the very next day'. There had been consequences for Misao of course – she now had a very large bump on her head – but it'd still been very embarrassing to be subjected to all those odd looks afterwards.

Grabbing her bag as the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, a sudden presence made herself known to Kagami. It'd been an unusually subtle presence – which probably meant that Ayano had made it to her desk faster than her friend – of course this presence was followed almost immediately with a very loud…

"Hiiragi!" Misao seemed to be almost flying across the classroom, most of the classmates had learnt early on that you should get out of Misao's way if you didn't want to get trampled.

Kagami dodged, and Misao crashed into a desk.

_Ah, maybe I went a bit far… is she okay?_ Kagami couldn't help but worry, it'd been a very loud crash, and Misao wasn't really moving.

"Ouch! That hurts!" as the hyperactive girl sat up Kagami breathed a sigh of relief. "Hiiragi, you should totally join some kind of judo club or something! That dodge was beautiful!"

Clearly, the fanged girl hadn't been seriously injured, although hopefully she'd still be in at least a little pain – it had been a _very_ embarrassing day.

"Misa-chan," Ayano looked calmly at Misao who was still sitting on the floor. "You really shouldn't jump people like that, it's dangerous."

_Amazing, she's acting so __**motherly**__, is she really our age?_ Kagami guessed that growing up together with the overly childish Misao had largely contributed to turning the girl into such a calm person.

"Ah, sorry Hiiragi," the fanged girl looked vaguely apologetic, which was more than Kagami had come to expect from the girl, truly Ayano was very influential to Misao's behavior.

"It's fine, just don't do it again," she couldn't really help but to forgive the hyperactive girl. After all this was what she'd come to expect from the girl, much like how she'd come to expect teasing from Konata.

Misao brightened visibly, it was almost enough to make Kagami smile at the sight. She'd always been like this, depressed and apologetic one second, and bright and happy the next. It was another thing that she'd come to expect from her, although this one always made her want to smile.

_She's like a puppy,_ Kagami almost burst out laughing at the thought.

"Hiiragi, can I come to your house?" Misao looked at her expectantly.

"Why?" suspicion filled her voice, Kagami had never been able to be anything but blunt when it came to Misao. She herself didn't know the reason, but it might have had something to do with getting caught up in her pace.

"Weell," Misao clearly seemed to be looking around for a reason, Kagami almost sighed. It was quite possible that the reason that the fanged girl was so blunt was because she was so bad at lying. "I need your help with our homework!" her triumph at finding a reason would have given her away even if the earlier pause hadn't.

At this time Kagami really did sigh, there was no way that she'd be able to make the girl do the homework, but at the same time she couldn't really reject her. _Besides, I guess I do owe her one for letting me share her umbrella yesterday._

"Fine, let's go," she looked at Ayano. "Do you want to come as well? I could use your help with getting this person to actually study," Misao looked offended, or rather she was _acting_ being offended, she really wasn't good at lying.

"Sorry, I've something else to do today," she smiled apologetically. "Have fun you two," and then walked off.

_Was she humming to herself? _The thought was absurd, but that's what it had sounded like.

After getting Misao up off the floor, the two girls began their trek towards the Hiiragi residence. It wasn't much of a trek, but it _was_ challenging to keep from punching Misao whenever she mentioned what had happened earlier that morning.

---(Ayano POV)

It had been a shock to see Misao and Kagami walking into class together. Not in a bad way, even though she did enjoy the fanged girl's presence, she didn't share the jealousy the Misao would feel whenever someone else took up the time of one of her friends.

As they entered the classroom, Misao was saying something about having slept together. Kagami's reaction had been expected, she snapped at her to drop it before even more people got the wrong impression. Her face was red from embarrassment.

Ayano had some trouble not laughing outright, it would be bad for her to do that. Not because she really enjoyed having them as friends and she didn't want them to think badly of her, no, the reason was simply that if she laughed, then she wouldn't be able to pretend that Kagami's warning of avoiding misunderstandings had come too late.

It was always fun to make the strict girl squirm, but she would never go so far as to tease her directly, if she did that then she'd be on her guard. No, it was better to pretend to be oblivious. It was much more entertaining that way.

So she innocently told the two that she wouldn't judge them no matter what they thought of people of the same sex. Even Misao had blushed a little at that one. Kagami looked almost ready to faint.

It had been a very entertaining way to start the day.

And as the day came to an end Misao suddenly jumped Kagami, unfortunately the twin-tailed girl dodged effortlessly. _Misa-chan does have a point, she really would fit well in a martial arts club if she could dodge something like that so easily._

Ayano had watched the two girls interact for a very long time, and had come to expect a few things from them.

Misao would always come crying to her whenever Kagami rejected her to do something else – no matter what that 'else' was – but she would always do her very best to catch Kagami's attention.

Kagami would usually be extremely blunt, as well as borderline cold towards the fanged girl, but on occasion she'd suddenly soften and look really happy. Ayano had also noted that a similar expression showed itself sometimes when she was around Konata.

She had a few suspicions on exactly how Misao viewed Kagami, her reason for trying to cling to her no matter what the other girl did in response, but she just couldn't figure out what Kagami thought of Misao in return. Was it just friendship? She couldn't say, but then again, she doubted that Kagami knew that herself.

She rejected Kagami's invitation. _I wouldn't want to get in your way if anything happened that might clear things up between you two._ She smiled as she began her walk home, humming happily to herself.

---(Kagami POV)

_Is it just me, or is Kusakabe acting weird? Okay, I should rephrase that, she's acting __**weirder**__._

Kagami looked over to where Misao was sitting, supposedly reading a manga, but she seemed to have been reading the same page for about ten minutes, and Kagami was starting to get suspicious.

"Hiiragi," Misao's voice broke her out of her thoughts.

"What is it?" the usually hyperactive girl crawled hesitantly closer to her.

"Hiiragi," Kagami was a little uncomfortable with the sudden lack of distance between their faces, but decided not to mention it. "You… look…" clearly she was having difficulties finding words for whatever it was that she was trying to say. "I'm in love with you."

_Ah, I see. Yeah that would be a difficult thing to say to someone-… Wait! What!? What did she just say!?_ Rarely had Kagami ever felt panic quite like this, it was a very new and very unsettling experience.

Misao looked expectantly at her. _What she want me to _answer_!? Well, I guess that does make sense, but what the hell should I tell her!? Damn it! What use is studying when your brain doesn't have a clue about what to do at a moment like this!?_

Finally Kagami was able to respond, in the only way she knew how.

"What… did you just say?" _Please tell me that you didn't say what I thought that you said, it'll make things a lot easier if I just misheard her._

"I… love you Hiiragi," Misao was looking quite nervous right now.

_Well there goes __**that**__ hope down the drain._ Kagami very nearly sighed before she realized that she had finally calmed down.

"I… see…" _How the hell do you respond to that!?_

Since she didn't know what _else_ to do, Kagami decided to give her feelings for Misao a complete overhaul. _If it turns out that I love her back it will make this a whole lot easier._

Kagami began thinking back on exactly how she viewed Misao, slowly coming to the conclusion that she would probably miss her, but that she wasn't really into her in _that_ way. Which, although not really unexpected, wasn't something that she was very happy with at the moment, mostly because it meant hurting Misao, and despite how annoying she could be, she didn't want her to get hurt.

"I'm sorry, I… don't really like you that way…" Kagami looked at the floor, feeling bad for the fanged girl.

"Oh," Misao sounded vaguely disappointed, as if she was too dazed to really feel anything, which was quite possible. "Is it the midget?" Kagami choked.

"_What_!?"

"I was just asking…" Misao was now pouting. Not saddened, not crying, not running out of the room in order to avoid her. No, she was sitting there _pouting_ as if this was nothing that unusual.

Something in Kagami snapped.

_This is who I've been trying to save from having her feelings hurt? That's it. I don't care anymore._ She then stood up, very calmly.

"Hiiragi? Is something wrong?" Misao seemed a little uncertain at her expression, namely, her wide _smile_. A smile that looked perfect in every way, until it was turned on you, and you could feel the chills going down your spine.

The kind of smile a person has right before they start trying to stab people to provoke reactions, as Konata would've said. Apparently there was an anime about something like that, although Kagami hadn't really been paying attention since she'd been trying to study at the time it'd been mentioned to her.

"Everything is fine," she continued to _smile_. "Why do you ask?"

"W-Well, it's just that-…" she cut off as she gulped nervously. She looked terrified.

And that was how the Hiiragi household came to witness something truly spectacular. Namely, a Misao that was running for her life, thankfully she was part of the track team so as long as she kept that speed she'd be able to survive, but if she didn't… well that's an entirely different story, because after her, came the most frightening creature any of the family members had ever witnessed.

Kagami.

Needless to say, the dinner table that day was a very quiet place, and most of it's occupants kept sneaking worried glances at Tsukasa's elder twin sister.

---(Konata POV)

Today had been a very ordinary morning, except for that one time when her dad had suddenly shouted something about 'winning at life' – she didn't question her father about that since she knew that she'd probably be obligated, as a daughter, to dislike him afterwards. It had occurred when Minami had come to pick Yutaka up for school, so she had a more or less accurate idea of what had been going through his head.

She was however, somewhat nervous about what would happen once she met up with Kagami – and Tsukasa. Would Misao be there again today, or would she be able to spend time with Kagami properly, without any unwanted interruptions?

There they were, and no Misao in sight. _Jackpot!_

Running up to them however, she noticed that Tsukasa was looking a little worried, and Kagami looked… strange somehow. It didn't look like she was ill or anything, it just seemed like there was something strange about her, Konata couldn't really put her finger on it, but it was definitely there.

"Kagamin!" jumping the surprised girl and capturing her in a hug, Konata felt quite proud of this accomplishment.

"Good morning Kona-chan," Tsukasa looked somewhat relieved to see her, which was strange, but not really important right now.

"Konata, get off me," a little surprised, Konata looked up at the taller girl. She was acting weird, usually her face would get red and she'd try to push the small otaku away, although she wouldn't be using any actual _force_, so it was easy to just hold on.

But today, she calmly told her to let her go with a slightly uncomfortable voice. This was not how Konata was used to her tsundere reacting, there was something wrong, and she needed to know what it was.

So she tried to ask Kagami about what had happened yesterday, but no matter how much she asked she didn't get any reply. Clearly _something_ had happened yesterday, and considering her involuntary twitch at the mentioning of Misao's name, the fanged girl was somehow connected to it.

Tsukasa also seemed intent on trying to distract her from the subject for some reason, she kept glancing worriedly at her older sister whilst doing so however, and that just intrigued her even further.

She'd be forced to wait for her answers until some other time, it would be easier to get the answers to her questions from Tsukasa, when Kagami wasn't around, than it'd be to get them directly from her.

The way to school was unusually quiet, even Miyuki seemed to be able to read the mood, everyone kept at a reasonably safe distance from Kagami. Konata was very uncomfortable with letting an opportunity like this one pass her by, but she was also nervous at going against the seemingly calm tsundere.

And so, after finally saying goodbye to the strangely acting Kagami, Konata began her interrogation of Tsukasa.

_The problem,_ she soon realized, _with interrogating Tsukasa, is that she never knows anything of the things that you actually __**want**__ to know._ She'd arrived at this conclusion after she'd finally convinced Tsukasa to tell her that Kagami had Misao had been chased out of the house, and that the twin-tailed girl had been terrifying at the time.

Konata didn't know what 'terrifying' meant, since Tsukasa kept looking traumatized whenever it was mentioned, and she'd found that she didn't have the heart to push on for anything more than that.

Konata didn't even know the reason for why Misao had incurred Kagami's wrath, only Tsukasa telling her that Kagami had refused to tell anyone about it – of course nobody had been very intent on getting the information, since apparently the entire family had seen her rampage and found that they didn't want to risk the chance of being subjected to Kagami's wrath for anything that wasn't absolutely necessary.

From this information however, Konata was able to draw two conclusions.

This was Misao's fault.

Make sure not to tease Kagami to the point where she went on a rampage.

They weren't the best of conclusions, but she'd done the best she could with the information available to her.

Unfortunately this also meant that she had to choose between two options if she wanted to know what had happened.

The first option was to get Kagami to talk about what had happened yesterday. She doubted that this would actually work considering how she'd failed earlier in the morning.

The second option was to find Misao and force the information out of her, with violence if proven necessary. This would probably work, but it meant that she'd have to talk with Misao, and therefore she didn't really enjoy the prospect of choosing this option.

_But I have to know what happened yesterday, no matter what the cost. … Okay that isn't really true, but I will definitely go __**very**__ far to know what happened._

---

Lunch came, and she slipped out of the classroom before Kagami arrived, it'd be hard enough to explain what she'd been doing afterwards, she didn't want to explain it _before_ it was impossible to stop her from doing it.

Once she'd safely made sure that Kagami was in the classroom that she herself had just left, eating together with Miyuki and Tsukasa, she went into the classroom from where the twin-tailed girl had came.

She was greeted by the sight of Misao and Ayano eating together. Misao was looking oddly distracted, despite the other girls insistent tries at starting a conversation.

Certain that she'd chosen the better alternative, Konata walked over to them.

"Misakichi!" Misao blinked as she looked up at Konata, clearly bewildered, but still managing to pull off a slightly peeved look.

"What do you want?"

"What did you do to Kagamin?" this caused a twitch.

"That's got nothing to do with you midget," Konata looked at her, then she sat down at their table.

"Kagami is upset about something, you're somehow the cause of it. Now tell me or I will be forced to use violence," she looked at Misao, staring into her golden eyes.

"Fine, I'll tell you," the fanged girl sounded almost relieved. "I told her that I was in love with her."

Konata was certain that there was a gasp of surprise from Ayano, but she couldn't hear it, Misao's words were instead echoing through her brain. _Okay, that was unexpected. How am I supposed to react to hearing that?_ Konata finally settled for something along the lines of…

"… You did what…?" the disbelief in her voice didn't come from Misao being in love with Kagami as much as it came from Misao _confessing_ that she was in love with Kagami, to _Kagami_ of all people.

"I told Hiiragi th-…" Konata put a hand over Misao's mouth, there's a limit to how many times you can hear such a shocking message, she didn't think she'd be able to take hearing it again.

"I got it," _This girl really __**is**__ a rival._ "So, what did she say?"_ Please don't let it be that the thought of liking other girls like that disgusts her, please, please, plea-…_

"She told me that she didn't like me that way, then we talked a little and she suddenly started smiling this _really_ creepy smile. So I ran really fast in the opposite direction," she didn't sound at all ashamed of having run away… then again if Tsukasa's stories were any to go by, then she should probably be glad that she'd been able to get out alive.

"I see…" _That doesn't tell me anything!_

---(Ayano POV)

Misao was acting weird, Kagami was acting weird. For some reason Misao wasn't energetic at all today, and Kagami looked like she was so far off in thought that she could walk straight through a wall without noticing – not into, _through_, Kagami was acting _very_ strange.

_Something must have happened yesterday, but what?_ Ayano concentrated hard but seemed to be unable to come up with a good reason for this odd behavior.

The few times Kagami was forced to answer a question, she either ignored the teacher completely until they moved on to someone else – who wasn't glaring at the wall as if she could somehow kill it that way – or she answered them flawlessly in a cold deadpanned voice that sent chills down the spines of the rest of the class.

When lunch finally arrived the entire class actually breathed a sigh of relief at not having to deal with her unsettling presence anymore, well, not the _entire_ class, Misao was simply staring into a wall, seemingly unaware that lunch had started – Misao was also acting _very_ strange indeed.

A few minutes after Kagami had left, Konata had shown up at their table, demanding that Misao tell her what had happened yesterday. When the truth was relieved, Ayano was left in shock.

_There's no way, she __**couldn't**__ be that blunt, there's just no way! Doesn't she have any tact whatsoever!?_ The two girls continued their talk for a little while before Konata left, muttering to herself. Ayano was guessing that Konata was trying to think of how to deal with Kagami using this new information.

Ayano turned towards her friend, who had finally returned to normal – apparently talking about it really did work, who'd have guessed – and asked her a very simple question.

"Why did you confess to Hiiragi-chan like that?"

"Eh? What do you mean 'like that'?"

"I don't think that that's… a very… good way of confessing to someone," _although, it should almost get some sort of bonus point for simply being so straight to the point._ She decided to leave that part out though, she wouldn't want to encourage the fanged girl.

"Eh? You can confess to someone in another way?"

… _Huh…?_

_She can't be serious… can she?_ Ayano couldn't help but wonder if this person was actually a girl. _I mean, even a bluntly honest girl should have at __**least**__ realized that there are more than one way of confessing to the person you like, right?_

---

**A/n:** **This is a story that I've been working on since October – the entire thing is finished, but I'm editing it chapter by chapter before releasing it – it's the longest I've written yet by a long shot, although still not quite as long as some other fanfics…**

**Basically, I hope you'll enjoy this oddly crack-induced series of mine – despite the OOCness coming from Ayano.**


	2. At Least The Weather's Nice

The Harem Route

Chapter 2: At Least The Weather's Nice

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

---(Kagami POV)

Kagami's day had _not_ been ordinary. In fact, it had been quite far from it.

Her family had been very cautious around her, acting like interacting with her was like walking through a minefield, blindfolded. This had made the morning very… awkward. Not that Kagami really minded, she was too busy thinking of other things to really care about what the people around her were doing, but she still noticed it.

Even Tsukasa, the airhead of the family, had acted more than a little weird this morning.

Although Kagami really needed to think about the events of the previous day, she found it to be very frustrating, and so she didn't actually _want_ to think about it. But, with her family acting the way they were, it was proving very hard to forget.

The way to school hadn't been much better, with Konata gently prodding her for answers to her strange mood. It wasn't that she wasn't happy that the small otaku was worried about her – it _did_ make her happy – it was just that she didn't want her to know of the sudden, and very surprising, situation she'd been put in.

It was strange that Konata wasn't in her classroom during the lunch break, then again, who knew what went through that strange girl's head.

Tsukasa acted slightly less awkward by then, apparently the familiar environment was starting to calm her down. Despite this attempt at normalcy from the two sisters, Miyuki was still able to pick up on the table's awkward mood. _I guess I should've expected as much._ Kagami thought to herself._ After all, **she'**_**_s_**_ sharp… unlike the other two._

Kagami didn't really understand how, but not only was Miyuki able to pick up on the oddity, she even managed to pry out the reason for the strict girl's strange mood. Kagami hadn't been expecting _that_. She'd always thought of the girl as a walking, oblivious, encyclopedia. And yet she'd been able to convince Kagami into telling her of what had happened with Misao.

Their reactions were… hard to describe.

Tsukasa stared, mouth agape, in complete shock. Before she started to ensure her elder sister that 'even if you swing that way, I'll still love you onee-chan', Kagami wasn't really that comforted by this statement. Instead claiming that she'd misunderstood everything.

Miyuki on the other hand, didn't look either shocked or flustered by the news, until they realized that she'd actually fainted – and yet she was somehow still sitting properly, wearing that kindhearted smile of hers.

Kagami had been forced to help her to infirmary, Tsukasa offered to do it, but Kagami said something about it being her responsibility for not being more subtle about telling her.

She'd decided to stay next to her, partly because she wanted to avoid the classroom, and partly because she was worried about Miyuki.

Using this time to the utmost extent, Kagami decided to run all that effected this situation through her head. _I'll skip the part about exactly __**how**__ Kusakabe fell in love with me, since I wouldn't know that unless I asked – and I'm __**not**__ doing that. But I guess I could think of what it is that I actually do feel for her, since I was kind of __**interrupted**__ last time I tried doing this._

Misao was a friend. A person that Kagami would miss if she were to disappear. A person that she'd punch if she ever tried to kiss her. Kagami stared out the window silently without really seeing anything.

_It would've been a lot easier if I actually did love her in **that** way, that way everything would've worked out easily… right?_

"Kagami-san?" she was brought out of her thoughts by a gentle voice.

"Ah, Miyuki, are you alright?"

"I'm alright. But where are we?" Kagami sort of understood what Konata said about Miyuki being 'moe'. It was actually quite endearing to watch the girl look so confused.

"We're in the infirmary," she hesitated, then added, "you fainted."

"Eh…? I did?" she looked even more confused. "… That's strange, why would I faint?"

"I told you that Misao confessed that she was in love with me yesterday."

"Ah, that's nice…" it seemed to take a while for Kagami's words to actually sink in, and then she fainted again.

_That's… What the hell am I supposed to do about this…?_

The third time went much better. Miyuki told her that – just like Tsukasa – she'd support her no matter what she thought of girls. And although Kagami _did_ try to explain to her that Misao had been the one that really did swing that way, she found herself happy that at least those close to her would accept her, even if she _had_ been like that.

Once this process was finished, Miyuki apologized for the inconvenience she'd caused Kagami by fainting.

Kagami had spent the rest of the day trying to think of ways to reject Misao without hurting her. Which was a little hard since a part of her kept telling her that she deserved anything she got. _How **dare** she be so carefree when I'm trying to be kind to her!?_

The Hiiragi household was still somewhat on edge around her, but it had gotten better. Tsukasa had even promised not to tell the rest of the family about the actual reason for her outburst, she'd looked like she was really serious about it, which was kind of rare for her little sister.

---

Konata's house looked very much the same as the last time Kagami had visited. Despite this, there was this feeling that it was a lot bigger now for some reason._ I guess it feels smaller when there are lots of people around…_

She was still not sure of exactly how she'd been convinced into having a study session at Konata's house. She was also feeling a bit awkward about the reason for there being so few people here. 'Dad is on a business trip, and Yutaka is staying over at Minami's,' was what Konata had said. But the thing that was making Kagami feel weird had nothing to do with the Izumi household.

_Tsukasa finished her homework by herself… and, from what I saw, I think she got it right…_ This was what repeated in the twin-tailed girl's head endlessly. _Since when has **she** been good at studying?_

The small otaku's room proved to be the same as always, which wasn't really surprising since it hadn't changed a bit for as long as Kagami had known her. Of course, Konata herself hadn't changed either, but she would keep quiet about that, because, despite what she said, the small otaku didn't like to be reminded of her shortcomings in… curves.

The study session was much the same as always, except for the lack of other people besides Kagami and Konata, and somewhere along the way, the strict girl picked up a manga from one of the many piles. _Why does she keep them in piles anyway?_

Time passed, and Kagami finally finished reading the strangely touching story – most of Konata's mangas were of the shounen variant, which usually meant large robots rather than emotional moments – but as she looked up – partly to check on Konata's progress, and partly to search for something else to read – she was met with two large, green orbs, hovering a short distance away from her face.

It wasn't the kind of distance where you start wondering why they're so close, but it was close enough to be unnerving, especially since Kagami got the feeling that Konata had been watching her for a while.

"Umm… Konata? Is something wrong…?" she looked hesitant at the smaller girl.

"It's just that Kagamin makes such moe faces when she's reading," saying something so shamelessly while smiling that lazy smile of hers.

"Idiot. Have you finished copying me?" her response is a, still smiling, nod.

Then she crawled closer to Kagami, settling down next to her with her back leaning against the bed.

"Kagami?"

"Yeah? What is it?"

"Why did you act so weirdly yesterday?"

_Eh? What's she talking about? I alre-… no, I didn't tell __**Konata**__. She disappeared at lunch so I only ended up telling Tsukasa and Miyuki. Damn! I wasn't expecting this… What do I do now?_

"That's… because…" it was proving to be a lot more difficult to tell Konata than it'd been to tell the other two.

"Misao confessed to you?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

_Wait. How did she know that?_

"Then, how are you going to answer her?" Konata leaned forward, bringing their faces _very_ close together. In fact, she could feel the other girl's breath on her lips, it should be noted that it was a very unnerving sensation.

"Konata, what… are you doing?" Kagami was having trouble trying to keep calm. _It's bad enough that I'm suddenly confessed to by Kusakabe, please don't let Konata think of me that way __**too**__. Damn it Konata! Stop looking at me like that, I'm confused enough already! Don't make things worse by doing something weird!_

It was warm and soft. All in all, it was a pretty pleasant feeling, but that was beside the point. Konata slowly pulled back, looking somewhat uncertain about what her reaction would be. Kagami's answer was smacking the shorter girl over the head.

"You stole my first kiss!" she shouted at the girl now holding her head in pain.

"It was for a good cause!"

"How is this a good cause!?"

"I will not be outdone by anyone! Kagamin is _mine_! I fell in love with her first!"

"How does falling in love first translate into me being yours!?"

_Wait! Did she just say that she's fallen in love with me!? Damn it! Not __**another**__ one! Why can't I attract __**guys**__ like this!? I'm sure that that'd be a lot easier on my brain…_

They might have continued this strange and very loud dialogue, but Kagami found that her brain couldn't handle any more of all of this, so she simply got up to her feet and stormed off. Leaving Konata sitting on the floor, still holding her head.

---(Konata POV)

_Well, **that** could have gone better…_ her head still hurt, but luckily Kagami hadn't really _rejected_ her – not outright at least.

A normal person would probably be devastated to have the person that they love, punch them the moment that you tell them of your feelings for them. But, although, Konata did feel a little bad, she wasn't even close to despair. This was mostly because Kagami hit her on a regular day to day basis, but also the fact that – no matter how much she tried to deny it – Kagami was a tsundere, there was no way that she'd turn instant deredere just because of something like a kiss.

It _had_ been a very nice kiss though. The small otaku's heart was still racing.

Konata smiled to herself. It would take time and effort, but she'd make sure that she'd capture her tsundere. After all, there was no way that she'd give up this early into the game. Things had just started to become interesting.

---(Ayano POV)

It wasn't an unusual occurrence for Ayano to help her fanged friend with her homework, in fact, it was almost a constant. Misao had never really been a person who could easily understand abstract things, such as math for example, and so, Ayano helped her out as much as she could.

Today however, Misao seemed _unusually_ distracted – she was always distracted, but this time she seemed to be a hopeless case.

"Misa-chan," the very distracted girl looked up. "is something the matter?"

"Ah," from her face Ayano could guess that what she was thinking of right now was somewhere along the lines of 'oops, busted'.

"You can tell me, it's not like you're going to be able to keep a secret from me anyway, right?" she smiled at the now uncertain looking girl, who was probably remembering all the times she'd tried to keep secrets from her – which explained why she looked almost ready to run away.

"It's Hiiragi…"

_I_ _should've guessed…_ Ayano thought to herself with a small smile. "What about Hiiragi-chan?"

"Well… I think the midget is in love with her too."

If Ayano had been drinking something at the time, she probably would've choked, thankfully she wasn't. "You think that Izumi-san…?" she trailed off, a bit uncertain about how to continue.

Misao nodded. "She's my strongest rival for Hiiragi."

_Eh?… Wait, what?_ "What do you mean by your _strongest_ rival?"

"Well she's always hanging around Hiiragi, and she's actually okay with being hugged by her. She's my strongest rival, the one that I absolutely _must_ defeat," Misao looked quite serious actually, it would've made her smile if she hadn't been so confused at the moment.

"I can see that, but isn't Izumi-san your _only_ rival?" the fanged girl didn't look convinced. "It's not like there are anyone else out to get her, right?" she seemed to consider this for a moment, and then she simply smiled happily.

"Ayano, you're really smart!"

She sighed. _This girl is hopeless…_

Time passed, and somehow she allowed herself to be distracted from her work. How they'd gotten there she couldn't say, but they were now talking about the exact procedure of Misao's love confession. It was a very… awkward, story, and Ayano couldn't help but be a bit sympathetic towards Kagami.

"Do you really not have _any_ clue as to how to be subtle Misa-chan?" the girl spoken to shook her head, still looking confused.

"What's this 'subtle' confession that you're talking about Ayano?"

She thought about it for a moment before finally finding a good example to explain it to the fanged girl.

"Imagine that the two of you went on a trip together," when Misao's face started to look ready to begin to sparkle, Ayano hastily added, "Not just the two of you, there are other people there as well. Now, everyone decides to go on a ghost hunt – someone only needs to suggest it and it's more than likely that it'll happen as long as a few conditions are met – and they pair up with each other. By a strange stroke of luck, the two of you are put together in one group," Misao was starting to look extremely interested. "Now imagine Hiiragi-chan being scared out of her wits, clinging to you the entire time."

_Is she __**drooling**__?_ The thought made Ayano feel a little uncomfortable, but she still continued with her story.

"Afterwards she will apologize to you for being a bother," Misao nodded understandingly, that was just the way that Kagami was. "In response you simply say something about how she shouldn't worry, and that you'll always be there for her, maybe you could even tell her that you love her. If this is done correctly, she'll be surprised, and happy, and she might actually end up falling for you in return."

Ayano looked at her tomboyish friend, who was looking at her in reverence, and couldn't help but feel a small tug at her lips. This was _fun_.

"Ayano, please, become my love coach!"

She looked at her, a little stunned by her sudden offer, and then she smiled._ She really is hopelessly straight forward… but I don't know if I'll be of much help to her… Oh well, I guess I should help her out the best I can, after all, it looks like this is going to be interesting._

---(Kagami POV)

At least it's not raining, I don't think I'd have had enough peace of mind to grab an umbrella on my way out, so if it'd been raining I'd be soaked.

Kagami continued to walk along the streets, letting her mind wander as she did.

_So Konata's in love with me too… really, how come I only seem to attract other __**girls**__? Why can't I attract __**boys**__ like all the other girls?_ Kagami's train of thought seemed to have been caught in a loop, it started with her complaining about losing her first kiss, then she moved on to the weather, then she complained about her recent problems with relationships, before finishing the loop by returning to how she'd lost her first kiss.

It seemed to take hours, and yet no time at all, before she found herself on the doorstep of her house. She was finally able to suppress her thoughts of what'd happened earlier as she opened the door.

There was no signs of anyone but Tsukasa, meaning that her younger twin sister would be the one to cook dinner. Not something all that unusual, although not really usual either, it was normal, just like her day of studying at Konata's house should've been.

_Damn midget…_ Kagami quickly suppressed the thought lest she begin to think of exactly _why_ she was so angry at the small otaku.

"I'm home," since she didn't really feel like going upstairs to study, Kagami somehow ended up in the kitchen.

"Ah, welcome home onee-chan," Tsukasa was already in the middle of making dinner, so Kagami – being useless at cooking – helped set the table.

The twin-tailed girl couldn't really understand why, or how, but somehow she ended up telling her airhead of a little sister about what exactly had happened at Konata's house. Her story was met with surprise as well as a 'I guess it should've been obvious when you think back on it'.

_Well, she does have a point… Konata has always been hugging me needlessly, teasing me whenever she got half a chance, and telling me that I was adorable… I guess it __**should've**__ been obvious._

After helping with what little she was able to help with, Kagami exited the kitchen and found herself instead inside of the living room. There wasn't anything of any real interest on TV, but it was a nice distraction, that is, until she started to smell a very strange odor.

_It smells as if something is burning… I wonder where it's coming from?_ Her answer came from a sudden loud voice inside of the kitchen.

"Oh no! I burned it!"

This statement was another surprise for Kagami, Tsukasa never burned the food. She was amazing at cooking and there was no way that she'd accidentally burn anything. Something must have distracted her little sister quite a bit, but, since she was also feeling kind of distracted, she decided to leave it for another day.

---

When Miyuki was told of the events that had transpired during the weekend she _didn't_ lose consciousness, although she _did_ need to be reminded to breathe. She also agreed on Tsukasa's earlier remark, 'it's kind of obvious now that you think about it'.

Kagami didn't feel too bad about being the sudden love interest of two girls, she didn't really _enjoy_ it either, but she was growing used to it. It was strange how normal all of it seemed, Misao and Konata fought over her, Konata dropped hints – that were not quite as subtle as she might believe – and Misao kept berating the small otaku for trying to steal Kagami away from her.

There were some strange moments, like the time when Misao was told of how Konata had confessed, which ended with the fanged girl trying to steal Kagami's _second_ kiss. She was almost a little thankful of Konata when she jumped in between them in an effort to protect Kagami's lips. _Almost_. She'd ended her valiant performance by turning around, and jumping at Kagami screaming 'Kagami's lips are _mine_!' which had resulted in another lump on the blue haired girl's head.

It was a very strange situation to grow used to, but at the same time, it wasn't really that far away from how it'd been before she'd known of the two girls' feelings. This was proven by how the class didn't actually notice, although, Kuroi did point it out once, the words she'd used had been something along the lines of, "You sure are popular Hiiragi."

How the teacher had been able to see the miniscule change was beyond her. _Is this the power of an adult?_ Kagami dismissed the thought, not because it was ridiculous, but because she wasn't sure whether or not _Kuroi_ could actually be classified as an adult.

Kagami sighed. Her ceiling looked very much the same as usual, even if a person doesn't necessary think about it, they will become very familiar with the ceiling of their bedroom.

_I can't sleep…_ This had been the case for the last – Kagami sneaked a look at the clock – two hours, and there didn't seem to be any improvements on the situation.

She wasn't sure of the exact reason for her being unable to fall into the dark embrace of sleep, but she was guessing that it'd something to do with the two girls who never let up on their courting. She sighed and turned towards the wall, the ceiling was beginning to look a little bit _too_ familiar. _Why did they end up falling for __**me**__ of all people? There must be some sort of reason… right?_ Kagami tried to remember if she'd ever somehow seduced either of the two girls.

The answer was obvious.

She had done _nothing_. She was completely innocent, even _Miyuki_ had gone closer to actually seducing Konata – this of course didn't mean that she'd actually _tried_ but rather it was an involuntary side effect of her extreme 'moe'ness.

So she hadn't seduced either of them, and as a result, the fact that they'd fallen for her was not something she could be blamed for. This actually managed to lift her spirits a little, it was a surprising relief to know that it was all _their_ fault. _Stupid idiots, falling for me for no reason whatsoever, what the hell were they __**thinking**__?_

Her frustration at the two of them taking away what little energy she had left, Kagami finally began to drift to sleep.

---

**A/n:** **This chapter was full of surprises for me. It's been quite a while since I originally wrote it and the story did change over that time, so I was forced to edit some quite big chunks, giving me a patched feeling to the 'things I removed' and an annoyed feeling to the 'things that would be too awkward to remove, but that I still have hesitations about'… Basically, have mercy on me.**


	3. Is Kuroi An Adult?

The Harem Route

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 3: Is Kuroi An Adult?

---

"You know, I really think that you shouldn't get this drunk."

"But it's so much _fun_!" the teacher giggled, "Besides, it's kind of nice being dragged home like this, you know? It's like you can't wait to get me into bed," this was followed by full-blown laughter as Kagami's face began to glow red from the innuendo of that statement.

"I really don't think a teacher should say something like that," Kagami fought her blush down, and tried to hide her embarrassment by scolding the easygoing teacher. _Huh, I guess I really __**am**__ a tsundere… not that I'm ever going to admit that to Konata, but still._

"I'm only a teacher in school," Kuroi seems to consider something for a moment, and then corrects herself, "I'm only a teacher in school, _and_ when telling Konata to do her homework."

_She's even able to force someone like Kuroi to be responsible. Truly, that girl is unparalleled at slacking._

"Fine, fine, I get it," she sighed, continuing to guide the intoxicated teacher towards her apartment.

She wondered what had convinced the teacher to get so drunk, especially considering that she'd have to get up early in the morning tomorrow, just like all of her students. But she decided that it wasn't any of her business.

Kagami wasn't really sure exactly how she'd ended up being the one to drag the strange teacher home, or rather, she wasn't sure exactly how she'd ended up _meeting_ the teacher at such an odd hour. She guessed that it had to do with her being distracted and ending up wandering, not really keeping track of where her feet took her.

She'd run into a very torn-looking Yui supporting the – at the time – singing Kuroi, when Kagami greeted them the constable had looked at her with puppy-eyes that made it very hard to resist. Apparently Yui had gotten a message that her husband had decided to drop by to visit, and now she was torn between running home to greet him, and getting the very drunk teacher to the safety of her apartment.

Kagami had offered to take her home in Yui's stead, and that was how she'd ended up dragging Kuroi through the night streets towards her apartment. When Kagami finally arrived at the doorstep she tried to ask Kuroi to unlock the door, but unfortunately, this didn't work nearly as well as she'd hoped.

Instead of either giving the keys to Kagami or attempting to unlock the door by herself, she simply began to laugh, telling the strict girl that she was going to have to search for them herself since she 'couldn't remember' where they were located. Kagami had a strong inkling that the teacher was lying.

The search wasn't made better by the strange noises Kuroi kept making whenever Kagami moved close to a 'dangerous' area – please keep in mind that the female anatomy leaves very few places that _aren't_ considered 'dangerous'.

After finally locating the keys – Kuroi had almost looked a little disappointed when she'd found them – she opened the apartment door, leading the woman inside. Kagami didn't really trust her not to fall asleep at some strange place – or do something else equally random – so, rather than inside the doorway, her destination was Kuroi's bed.

The innuendos that the teacher started dropping at the realization of this was enough to make Kagami's face turn a continuous red, but she continued to do her best in order to get her into bed safely.

"Are you sure you don't feel like…" pausing for an extra suggestive effect, "sleeping over?"

Kagami looked at the teacher, that was now wearing something like a t-shirt and underwear, and began to wonder about whether or not Kuroi was _seriously_ coming on to her, or if she was just a flirty drunk. As she pondered on this she began to tuck her into bed, and, not wanting to stick around to see which of those were the truth, she then turned around in order to leave the apartment – that smelled a lot like beer, by the way.

She wasn't able to react until her back hit the floor – softly, but still very much startling – and when she did, the only noise she managed to make was of the "Eep!" character.

Kagami stared up at the woman whose hands were now holding her down – she really was quite gentle about the whole thing, but it still made the strict girl _very_ nervous.

"You _sure_ you don't want to spend the night cutie?" Kuroi smiled at her, the kind of smile Konata usually gave just before she did something perverted. "I could teach you a _lot_ of things you know…" she trailed off, leaving Kagami to think of exactly what kind of things she was talking about. Her face grew even redder.

"Umm… Kuroi-sensei, this is… could you… let go…?" she doubted that this would actually work, so she wasn't really that surprised when Kuroi responded.

"No," she did however, feel a sting of panic. "I don't want to."

It's amazing the power you can obtain when cornered, this was something Kagami realized as she somehow managed to break free from Kuroi's grip. Not really wanting to take any more chances than necessary, the strict girl decided that if the teacher caught a cold because she fell asleep on the floor, then she probably had it coming.

It took Kagami a few blocks before she was able to calm down. It was also at this time that she realized that she was walking in the wrong direction, not the opposite direction, just not the way she would've taken if she'd wanted to reach her destination.

She sighed, and steered her feet towards her home, hoping that she wouldn't get into too much trouble from staying out so late.

When she finally made it home the first thing she did was to try to explain to her parents exactly why she'd been out so late at night, needless to say, she didn't mention the incident at the apartment. She did however, mention taking Tsukasa's drunk teacher home.

In the end she wasn't punished, although whether or not that had to do with them trusting her, or them still not being completely recovered from the incident after Misao's confession, she didn't know.

---(Konata POV)

Konata was a bit peeved. Despite having confessed to Kagami, and stealing the beautiful girl's first kiss in the process, she'd been unable to capture her heart. Of course, she hadn't given up just yet, the proof of that could be seen in how she'd replayed every tsundere route in every eroge she owned several times, hoping to find some clue as to how she was supposed to seduce her _own_ beloved tsundere.

So far, she'd been unsuccessful. However, she'd learned that Kagami didn't seem to _completely_ reject the concept of dating another girl – although she _was_ clearly reluctant. Konata had also realized that she was now on common ground with Misao, this made her even more peeved, mostly because she'd never considered the fanged girl as enough of a threat to be a rival.

She sighed. Slowly crawling up to a sitting position, she turned towards her alarm clock. _It's almost time to wake up and get ready for school… this is so unfair, when I finally go to bed early so that I can feel rested, why is it that I can't fall asleep? And why do I have this bad feeling? Is it some sort of premonition?_

Another sigh, and then she pushed herself out of the bed. _I guess I might as well get up._ She continued with her usual morning routine, although there were some strange glances from Yutaka. Apparently her cousin had grown used to her being slow to get out of bed in the morning, and, facing Konata this early in the morning, she was now at a loss for what to do.

Yutaka was once again picked up by Minami, Konata wasn't sure whether the taller girl was being overprotective or if she simply wanted to be with her as much as possible – she was however, certain that this had already ended up as material for her friend Hiyori.

The blue haired otaku began her journey towards the place where she'd meet up with Kagami – and Tsukasa – having already forgotten the bad feeling that made her unable to sleep throughout the entire night.

The first thing she noticed when she saw Kagami, other than the way her hair seemed to flow in the wind – it was really quite spectacular – was that she seemed to have slept less than Konata herself, and there was no way that was possible. Clearly this needed investigation… but first.

The sudden hug was rewarded by a mixed squeak of surprise and embarrassment from the twin-tailed girl.

"K-Konata! D-Don't suddenly jump me so early in the morning!" the otaku could feel her lips curl upwards in a mischievous smirk, teasing Kagami was _fun_.

_Damn it, I'm getting distracted… but Kagamin is so __**soft**__._ The shorter girl smiled helplessly as she tried to bury her head into the tsundere's chest. Her reward for this boldness was a sudden headache as another lump formed on her head.

"There's things you just shouldn't do you perverted otaku!" Konata looked up at the blushing face of the twin-tailed girl.

_Hmm… I think there should be some sort of rule about how cute someone is allowed to look, I mean this is just __**cheating**__!_ She let go of the obviously embarrassed girl, deciding that it was best not to push her luck anymore than this. For now.

Apparently Kagami had really had problems falling asleep the night before. She refused to say anything about the reason for it though, claiming that it wasn't anything special – Konata had her doubts about that, but she let it go.

She tried to get in one more hug with Kagami before splitting to go to different classes, but she was stopped by the tsundere's hand calmly holding her at bay.

"Kagamin, just one more hug! If you just hug me I'll be sure to have enough energy to even pay attention in class!" attempting to sway the taller girl by promising to work hard however, didn't work. Though the reason for that might have been the sudden interference.

"Hiiragi!" the tomboyish girl seem to come out of nowhere, and she would probably have tackled Kagami to the floor with her running hug, had the girl it was aimed at not moved. The twin-tailed girl sidestepped and Misao suddenly found that she'd instead ended up tackling the shorter girl that she'd been keeping at bay.

It was_ not_ a pleasant experience.

_That's dangerous you crazy tomboy! I thought I was going to die!_ Pushing the other girl off of her, Konata crawled back to her feet, only to realize that Kagami had already entered her own classroom.

---

When Kagami arrived a few minutes after lunch break started, she looked almost nervous. Of course, she refused to admit to this, but the way she kept glancing around kind of undermined her defense.

"What's wrong onee-chan? You're acting really strange."

_Even __**Tsukasa**__ has managed to notice it, there's no way that she'll be able to get out of this without an explanation now._ Kagami seemed to have had the same thought as she sighed and began to explain what had happened with a certain teacher recently.

Tsukasa was staring blankly, seemingly unable to comprehend what her elder sister had said, Miyuki looked more as if she was shocked at the thought of a teacher coming on to a student rather than anything else, Konata on the other hand, could feel the flames of jealousy spread trough her, warming her even to her fingertips.

_I'm going to have a few words with sensei, that's for sure… _She was quite certain that she'd spend the rest of the day glaring at her gaming comrade.

Kagami ended her story with saying something along the lines of 'if you mention this to anyone I'll kill you'.

"Even if she _was_ drunk, she should still suffer some sort of punishment for it," Konata nodded, completely agreeing with what Misao was saying.

…

"Wait, what?" she looked at the fanged girl, "Why the hell are _you_ here!?"

"Eh!? You didn't even notice me until now!? That's damn cold you midget!" she seemed to rethink the situation when the rest of the table looked equally surprised, deciding instead to explain her reasoning for arriving at the table, "Well, Hiiragi was acting really weird before she went into your classroom, so I figured that I should follow her."

Konata could understand, and relate to this, but at the same time she was also upset about Misao invading what Konata believed to be a sanctuary for Kagami and her. But, because of obvious reasons, she decided not to voice any of her thoughts on the matter.

Kagami seemed to be too confused by the recent events and sort of just froze solid. It would have been amusing to watch, had the blue-haired otaku not been quite so worried about her.

It was at this very awkward moment that a certain person just _had_ to show up. Miyuki looked like she wanted to run away, Tsukasa looked even more confused, Kagami looked about ready to hide underneath the table, and Misao and Konata made a joined effort of glaring at the teacher who'd just entered the room.

"Ah," Kuroi's eyes found the twin-tailed girl and walked up to them. "Yo, Hiiragi, I heard about you taking me home last night from Yui," she gave a sheepish grin, "Sorry if I did anything to embarrass you, or something."

Whatever movement had been at the table ground to a sudden halt, everyone sharing the same thought. _She doesn't remember!?_

Kagami was, surprisingly, the first to recover, telling her that she didn't actually _do_ anything, but still scolding her for drinking so heavily.

_Truly, Kagami is amazing, she's even able to scold grownups… wait, does sensei even count as an adult?_ Konata pondered this for a moment before she realized that she was getting distracted from thinking of some way to punish the teacher.

"Hiiragi, are you sure you didn't hear anything?" Misao's voice brought the small otaku out of her internal struggle to find something to say. "I mean, usually drunk people tend to talk about a _lot_ of things…"

Kuroi seemed to flinch a little, apparently nervous that the strict girl was holding back information to use at a later date. Kagami on the other hand, was slowly turning red, leaving a hint that even the scatterbrained teacher couldn't help but notice. This meant that Kuroi's original flinch seemed to become more and more like the frozen solid that Kagami had opted a few moments ago.

Konata was stunned.

Her rival, the strange girl that shouldn't have a chance against her, had succeeded where she herself had failed._ I lost to __**Misakichi**__…? What the hell is going on!?_

Kuroi decided to cut her losses and leave before something she didn't want others to know was revealed, and the rest of the gang breathed a sigh of relief.

The rest of lunch – which wasn't very much – was spent talking about more normal things. In this case, something that really smelled. Strange as it might've been to start off with, Misao actually fit in remarkably well with the four girls usual conversation, much to Konata's bewilderment.

Afterwards, Kagami and the fanged girl left to go their own classroom, leaving behind a Konata who was starting to feel very jealous, something that was kind of new to her.

---(Ayano POV)

Kagami had been acting strangely again this morning, although she'd still managed to sidestep when Misao attempted to tackle her, it'd been quite a scene.

As the fanged girl's 'love coach' Ayano had tried – somewhat desperately – to make the straight-forward girl a little more subtle. But, if recent events were anything to go by, she still had a _long_ way to go.

When lunch break finally arrived Kagami had departed from the classroom, which was nothing unusual, and Misao had simply gotten up and followed her. It was impressive how normal it'd looked, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, as if Misao always followed the twin-tailed girl into her little sisters classroom.

_I guess she isn't completely hopeless…_ Ayano smiled a little, before realizing that this meant that she'd spend lunch alone. _I wonder…_ She chuckled to herself.

Getting out of her seat, Ayano set off from the classroom, using her phone to arrange a meeting place. _After all. Lunch should be eaten with someone you love._

---

**A/n:** **Truly, humility is a hard lesson to learn, and I feel a bit guilty for forcing it on Konata, but it was needed. This is a fairly short chapter – although, admittedly, not the shortest – and I did consider merging it with the next one, but it feels like it'd be a waste.**


	4. An Alliance Being Formed

The Harem Route

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 4: An Alliance Being Formed

---(Konata POV)

The lessons after lunch were all dedicated to trying to figure out what it was that'd happened during it. Konata suffered a few run-ins with the teachers who actually expected her to pay attention to what they were teaching her, but in the end she finally came to a startling realization.

_Kagami is extremely attractive._ It was shocking, because she should've realized it earlier. _In other words, I have a __**lot**__ of rivals…_ But how should one deal with something like that?f

At this rate Konata couldn't count on it being her that captured the tsundere's heart, or even the fanged girl._ Wait, what? Since when am I okay with Kagami falling for Misakichi?_ At this point she was interrupted by a teacher trying to ask her something, so she said something about devouring the souls of the puny mortals who dared to disturb her rest, and got herself kicked out of class.

Standing in the hallway proved to be very useful in collecting her thoughts, despite her arms now hurting because of the buckets of water that she was holding up.

She failed to suppress a sigh._ Misakichi is my rival. I don't like her, and I'd much rather that Kagami fell for __**me**__, but if I had to choose who – other than me – she should fall for… I'd probably choose that tomboy…_ The realization wasn't really a happy one.

It was at this moment something loud happened from the classroom next-door, it sounded like someone yelled something and then there was a crash. The sounds were soon followed by the door opening, revealing a disheveled looking Misao. She sort of froze for a moment when she saw that the hallway was already occupied, but then continued to fetch two buckets and fill them with water.

The two of them stood there watching each other for a while, until finally Konata decided to break the silence – though she made sure that she was quiet enough so that the teachers in the classrooms wouldn't hear them.

"Kagami is extremely attractive," she stated the realization she'd made a few moments ago, causing the fanged girl to look at her strangely.

"What's your point midget?" Konata wasn't sure how, but she got the feeling that Misao had made the same realization that she had.

"I don't like you, but I recognize you as a rival, so I want her to choose between _only_ the two of us. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"You're suggesting an alliance?" apparently the fanged girl really _had_ been thinking about the same things Konata had, the small otaku nodded.

"We'll keep all the others who're after her away, and then have her choose between either of us," putting down her bucket of water for a moment, Konata stretched out her hand, "Deal?"

"Deal," Misao did the same with her bucket and shook her hand.

---(Hiyori POV)

"Minami-chan, that's really amazing," the small girl looked at her with admiration, but then a slight hint of guilt, "I'm really sorry, I wasn't able to make anything that great…"

"It's alright, since it's Yutaka's I'm sure it's delicious," their eyes met.

"Minami-chan…" whatever she was going to say next was softly cut short by the taller girl's lips.

…

_Gah! I did it again! I shouldn't look at my friends like that! Damn you, fujoshi brain of mine!_ As Hiyori collapsed in a pile of shame, the two girls who'd been talking about their lunchboxes looked at her in confusion, Patricia on the other hand, just smiled knowingly.

It was an ordinary day for the four of them, although Yutaka was a little worried since Konata had been acting stranger than usual lately, Minami had been the only one to take her seriously – mostly because the other two had been trying to figure out if anything special had happened in the otaku world recently that might've caused it.

In the end however, they'd all decided that if Konata was acting weirder than usual it was probably best to simply ignore it and move on. It was a insensitive decision, but it was for the greater good.

When – after several hours of boring lessons, and a lot of scribbling from Hiyori's side after an incident where Yutaka had fallen asleep – lunch finally came they'd all gathered together, Yutaka and Minami sitting next to each other as usual, and they'd begun to eat. It was at this time that it was reveled that both of them had made their own lunchboxes, the rest was sort of fuzzy to the fujoshi.

Suddenly there was a scream.

Not the kind of scream you make when someone jumps out of the closet and stabs you, but it wasn't really far from it, there was, for example, a lot of surprise in it, but at the same time there was a feeling of primal rage too strong to be put into words. It was a strangely ordinary, and yet bone chilling kind of scream.

It was a scream that also seemed vaguely familiar to Hiyori, she looked at the other girls, apparently they'd had the same feeling, but before either of them could try to remember who it could've been that screamed so loudly, there was another scream. Only, in this one there was actually words distinguishable from the rage. Well, maybe not words, but at least there were names.

"KONATA!! KUSAKABE!!" it was at this point that Hiyori realized that the scream was actually made from the upperclassmen's part of the school, which meant that the screamer were in possession of an amazing set of lungs.

The four of them all sweat dropped when they realized the reason for why the first scream had sounded so familiar.

---(Kagami POV)

After explaining to the gang – and Misao – why she'd been acting so nervously, Kagami had wanted only to escape back to her own classroom. Unfortunately, this didn't happen. Instead a teacher with the worst timing in the history of mankind, suddenly entered the room.

It was somewhat of a relief when she realized that Kuroi didn't actually remember anything about that night, and that this probably meant that she was simply flirty towards _everyone_ when she was drunk. _It's actually kind of nice to hear that not __**everyone**__ I know are actually secretly in love with me…_

But she kind of wished that she could somehow get back at the teacher for putting her in such an awkward position, and then Misao opened her mouth, and Kagami began to pray intensely that she didn't say anything that would give away any of the things that'd actually happened.

The result baffled her. _Since when can Kusakabe do things like that?_ She wasn't sure if she should be glad to have gotten her revenge, or terrified that the fanged girl now possessed something _other_ than bluntness in her arsenal. In the end she settled for neither, deciding instead to slip back into her own classroom as soon as possible.

She was a bit surprised when Misao was told to go stand in the hallway – she may not have been paying attention during most lessons, but she was _rarely_ thrown out of class – but was then distracted by a cloud going by, all of this love stuff was seriously starting to affect her focus on school.

Kagami sighed and tried to pay attention to what the teacher told them, she succeeded only partly, picking up some things here and there.

When class finally ended, Kagami figured she should go out and thank Misao for what she'd done during lunch – as long as the twin-tailed girl was the one who _hadn't_ been thrown out of class, she would still able to scold the usually blunt girl if she decided to tease her. It was a perfect plan, and she was surprised to se it easily ruined by another – somewhat shorter – girl who was also standing in the hallway with buckets of water.

"Konata? What're _you_ doing?" the two of them turned at the sound of her voice, and suddenly this didn't seem like such a perfect plan anymore. In fact, she felt this sudden urge to turn around on the spot and run as fast as she could in the other direction.

Turns out, that would've been a smart thing to do.

Misao, unable to think things through as usual, suddenly decided to hug her. Of course, Konata who'd been able to foresee this outcome, intercepted her with an elbow to the ribs. Neither of these two had remembered that they were still holding a bucket filled with water in each of their hands.

The twin-tailed girl's startled scream echoed through the halls. The result of the collision was enough to drench Kagami to the bone.

Konata and Misao were both lying on the floor, having gotten tangled in each other during the fall. Both of them were perfectly dry, in fact, everyone _except_ for Kagami were all _perfectly dry_.

Something inside of her snapped at that moment, and with a voice that could've scared Cerberus into instant submission.

"KONATA!! KUSAKABE!!"

The two girl's reaction was predictable. They ran. They ran as if they feared that she would kill them, and Kagami set off after them, intent on proving them right.

---(Ayano POV)

It had been a bit shocking when Misao had been thrown out of the classroom, not because she was thrown out – she had had that one coming, considering – but because of _how_ she got herself kicked out.

It was not acceptable to sleep during the lessons, this was a common rule that applied no matter which country our culture you happened to come from. Therefore it wasn't really all that surprising that the teacher had gotten a little annoyed at the fanged girl's loud snoring, it was quite understandable when the teacher responded to this annoying source of unwanted noise by throwing a piece of chalk at her.

It was what happened from this point onwards that had been shocking.

The piece of chalk hit the sleeping girl right in the forehead with enough force to wake her immediately. Misao had jumped out of her seat, Ayano wasn't really sure what kind of dream that she'd been having when she'd been awoken, but the result of waking suddenly from it had been obvious for all to see.

"The clowns are coming!!" the newly awakened girl finished her sentence by grabbing her chair and hurling it at the teacher.

There were no injuries, although it took a little time to convince Misao that it'd just been a dream, but the teacher sort of snapped and threw her out to go stand in the hall.

Ayano wasn't sure if she should feel sorry for her friend, or if she should just laugh at the strangeness of it all. Kagami on the other hand, didn't seem to have the same problem, immediately deciding to go check on her after the lesson ended, and actually managing to be the first one out of the classroom – something that was new for the usually diligent girl.

_Does Misa-chan have a chance on Hiiragi-chan after all?_ The thought was actually a little relieving to her. _I guess I'd feel bad if she didn't have a chance whatsoever…_ Ayano smiled to herself and continued to pack her things.

A startled scream –and what sounded a lot like splashing water – made her freeze.

_Hiiragi-chan?_ Ayano, along with everyone else in the classroom, stared at the door from where the scream had come, but before anyone could do anything in order to find the cause.

"KONATA!! KUSAKABE!!" the malice inside that voice was enough to give everyone that'd been moving towards said door second thoughts.

_That's such a shame. I thought that maybe she'd have a chance, but I guess she'll be hospitalized instead…_ Ayano didn't really feel very guilty about this. After all, whatever it was that Misao had done, it was probably enough to make her deserve what was coming to her. _Besides, apparently Izumi-san will be there as well, and I'm sure that it'd be good if those two could learn to get along._

---(Konata POV)

There were two voices inside of Konata's head at the moment. One of them was thinking about exactly how much weight the soaked, and _very_ angry, girl was currently losing while chasing them down the corridors. The other one was telling her to run faster, since it looked as if she might catch up at any moment.

Of course, there were other thoughts that went through the small otaku's head, but they were of the usual kind, like wondering of the exact airtimes for her favorite animes – she'd always had a bit of an issue with concentrating.

It was kind of hilarious to watch the panicked face of the fanged girl who was running along next to her, but, since it might slow her down, she didn't laugh at the sight._ I wonder if I look like that too?_ The thought actually made Konata crack a smile. _Kagamin truly is fearsome when she's mad…_

Taking another corner without slowing down, Konata saw something flash by her vision, something heading the opposite way. Hoping that whatever it was didn't get seriously injured by the raging girl behind her – after all, it'd be bad if Kagami felt guilty about it afterwards – Konata continued to run.

---(Kagami POV)

It had been a trying day for the now-dried-off tsundere.

She had been unable to catch the two responsible – they were among the fastest in the school after all – and had been forced to change into her gym clothes in the nurses office.

When she'd finished with that the two of them had given their sincere apologizes – although Misao had been able to mention that she looked really hot in her new clothes, Konata had agreed, but mentioned that she still thought that the twin-tailed girl had looked amazing with the wet fabric clinging to her body.

It was at this time that Kagami sent them back to the nurses office that she'd just left, lumps forming on their heads. There was a limit to making embarrassing comments, after all, _especially_ in public.

There had technically been another lesson, but after Kagami's chase and changing of clothes, it had already finished, leaving them with nothing but to return home. It'd been a bit surprising to discover that her little sister had already left – she'd been acting strangely lately, but Kagami couldn't figure out exactly why.

Strangely enough, both of her self-proclaimed suitors had decided to escort her home, and neither of them voiced any objections to the others presence. _That's… odd… I wonder when they began to get along?_

Walking down the streets, caught between the two girls, was a little awkward, but not quite as unpleasant as she would've thought. It was however, very, _very_ embarrassing, since the two of them were flirting shamelessly with her the entire time.

When she finally arrived at home, she learnt that Tsukasa was actually studying in her room. _I wonder what's going on? Although, I guess her studying properly is a good thing…_

The twin-tailed girl collapsed on her bed, deciding to ignore her schoolwork for the moment, it _had_ been a _very_ tiring day after all.

When dinner was finally served, Kagami acted very much like a zombie, crawling slowly out of the bed, feeling somewhat unwilling to face the world anymore on this one day. The rest of the family commented on her strange mood, but decided not to press the issue after Kagami mentioned something about having a very tiring day. They were an annoying, but also understanding kind of family.

---(Konata POV)

"So, how good are you at cooking?"

"The last time I tried cooking something, the frying pan caught on fire," Konata blinked.

"Wow, that's pretty extreme. I doubt that even Kagami could pull that one off," slightly embarrassed Misao laughed at the shorter girl's comment.

Apparently, their houses were in the same direction if you started out from the Hiiragi's house, so, after walking Kagami home, they'd decided to walk together. Konata wasn't sure if this had been a good, or a bad idea, but it was surprisingly fun to talk with the fanged girl, and it also seemed as if they had many points were they agreed with each other – most of these were connected to Kagami in some way.

So they were walking home together, conversing happily as they did so, when all of a sudden a familiar face popped up in front of them. Well, technically there were _two_ faces suddenly popping up, but one of them was much more familiar than the other.

Yutaka, and next to her was Minami, the two of them looked just as surprised as Konata felt. It was a strange, albeit very interesting, scene. The two of them were holding hands – before we go into Hiyori mode, it should be noted that there were a lot of people around and the smaller girl could easily be swept away by the flow of people – and neither were wearing their school uniform, making it look very much like they'd dressed up for each other.

Konata felt as if she'd suddenly walked in on their date, which was a very strange feeling – kind of a mixture of giddy happiness for finding such wonderful teasing material on her younger cousin, embarrassment at disturbing such a personal moment, and finally, a distrustful feeling directed towards the taller girl, similar to the 'You damn well better take care of her or I'll hunt you down and hurt you,' feeling that one might get when you're first introduced to a boyfriend of a person close to you.

The awkward silence between the four of them was soon shattered by the one person who could rival Miyuki in her naivety – well not really, but that's what it felt like considering.

"Ah, you're the midgets younger cousin," this was followed by some intense thought process, "Yutaka, right?" when this was confirmed by a nod from the person in question Misao's face lit up, it was actually kind of fun to watch, even though it all still felt pretty weird.

After she'd successfully named one of them, the fanged girl turned towards the other, but this time she seemed to be stuck, so Minami introduced herself, to which Misao instinctively responded. _I wonder what Hiyori would make out of __**this**__ situation…_ The visual that followed that thought made Konata smile.

The four girls talked for a few minutes before continuing on in their different directions, and a while after that, Misao and Konata split up.

When she finally arrived at her house, Konata began to cook dinner, she'd taken her time getting home after all. Sojirou was watching television, looking much like he always did – though he seemed unusually happy when Konata turned towards the kitchen, so she was guessing that he was already hungry.

Yutaka would be late getting home, saying that she'd eat dinner with Minami instead, so it was only Konata and her dad that were going to eat what she was cooking at the moment.

Konata had learnt over the years that she could never hide anything from her father, she wasn't sure exactly when she'd realized this, but it was a thing of the past, so when he'd said 'It's a good choice you know, the tsundere routes are always the best' to her, some time ago, it had been something of a startling recollection.

Thankfully, this had also meant that she'd always had someone to talk to about Kagami, although he might not seem all that reliable, considering his personality, he'd proven that he actually _could_ be serious about _some _things – at least when it concerned love – it was just that, most of the time, he simply chose not to be.

One of these times had been when he'd commented on one of her plans to seduce the twin-tailed girl with the question 'If you succeed in winning your tsundere priestess, can I watch?' It wasn't the only time he'd asked something along those lines, but it was one of the more extreme cases – mostly because she'd responded by threatening to shove her fist down his throat.

It'd been a long day for Konata, filled with alliances, chases, wet clothes, awkward meetings, surprising friendships, and finally, a father to daughter heart-to-heart.

---(Hiyori POV)

"They were walking together?"

"Yeah, they seemed to get along really well with each other," Yutaka was wearing that innocent face that makes you wonder how it's possible for her to be related to Konata, at least until you remember that Yutaka isn't related to her dad.

"But that's really strange, I thought those two couldn't stand each other, why are they suddenly getting along?" Hiyori felt her fujoshi gears kicking in.

_Entering fantasy mode, please stand by._

"Konata, even though I love you with all of my being, we must hide our love, because there is no one who would accept us," Konata looks at the fanged girl pleadingly, as if wishing that she would take back those words.

"Oh Misao, I'm satisfied as long as I can be with you," a voice that could make the most hardened heart grow meek came from those tearstained lips.

"We can't, not yet," holding onto the smaller girl's shoulders, she leans in and kisses her gently, "Soon, I'll take you away from here, and we'll be together, just the two of us, but we must wait."

…

_That makes no sense __**whatsoever**__! Damn it Hiyori get it together!_ Beating herself up for, once again, looking at two – well at least one – of her friends in a perverted way, the other two girls at the table looked quizzically at her, clearly wondering what she was thinking about.

It was at this moment that Patricia finally arrived, successfully breaking what strange awkwardness was left by Hiyori's zoning off into her own private fantasies.

---

**A/n:** **Will Hiyori's weird fantasies come true? Will Misao cook in the near future? Will Yutaka and Minami ever stop being clueless about Hiyori's weird fantasy mode? … Okay, that last one is an **_**obvious**_** negative, but still.**


	5. Miyuki, the Moe Wonder

The Harem Route

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 5: Miyuki, the Moe Wonder

---(Kagami POV)

It hadn't been much of a normal day for Kagami.

Well, that is, unless you consider being clung to by two girls – one on each arm – normal.

Two girls who, by the way, seemed utterly oblivious to the stares of other people, unless Kagami looked at the viewers, because then they really _did_ notice them as they almost seemed to hiss at anyone who came too close to her. She wasn't sure if this was just her imagination though.

Even meeting on the way to school was something she'd never expected, but Misao had been standing there, rearing to go, the moment that she'd opened the front door. Konata hadn't been far off, only a couple of feet – Misao _was_ the one in the track team after all.

Once they arrived at school she was finally able to shake both of them off, not wanting anyone that she might know to see her awkward situation. When Kagami had left for her own classroom, it'd almost seemed as if Konata wanted to go there with her.

_Maybe I'm not the only one feeling lonely because of our classes…_ The thought made the strict girl frown slightly._ If she ever heard me admitting to being lonely, she'd never let me live it down._

The day carried on in it's oddly normal way, until lunch finally came.

Kagami once again moved towards Konata's and her sisters classroom, only to find that the latter had run off somewhere.

Perplexed by her little sister's strange behavior, she almost decided to go and look for her, unfortunately this was when she remembered that, if she went, so would her two suitors, and this would turn out _very_ awkward.

So instead of searching the school for her sister, and trying to find the reason for her absence that way, she simply sat down and began to eat together with Miyuki – who seemed slightly worried about Tsukasa – Konata – who was dropping perverted hints at an alarming rate – and Misao – who seemed content with eating, chatting, and trying to hug Kagami whenever she let her guard down.

It seemed as if she'd spent hours criticizing Konata for saying perverted things – especially in public since there seemed to be some who overheard her, if the random coughs were anything to go by – and dodging Misao, to the fanged girl's obvious disappointment – she looked kind of like a puppy.

But as the lunch break drew to a close and Kagami began to get ready to leave for her own classroom, a most unexpected person slipped a note into her hand. It took a moment for it to register, so she never had any time to ask them what it was about, because Kuroi chose that particular moment to step through the door.

The rest of Kagami's lessons passed in a sort of a daze after she'd read the note._ Why does she want to meet with me alone?_

The question was left unanswered, and when the end of classes finally came, she was the first to leave through the door, leaving a bewildered Misao behind. If she wanted to meet with her alone, that meant that Kagami first had to shake-off any of her pursuers. She couldn't afford a slow start.

Navigating through the halls that were beginning to crowd with others who'd ended their day, the strict girl continued towards the designated meeting place. It was the kind of place where no-one ever came, the kind of place that were perfect for confessions – if you believed what anime and manga had to say about it.

Since Kagami had been taking a long route to get here, in order to shake off her pursuers, she wasn't surprised to see that the other girl had already arrived. Though it did make her a little self-conscious when she saw how the girl seemed to fidget nervously as she waited.

"Miyuki," the girl jumped slightly as she heard her name being called, and then turned towards the source of the noise.

"Ah, Kagami-san," she looked a little relieved at the sight of her.

"So, why did you call me out here?" _Please don't let it be another love confession, I don't think I'd be able to handle another one…_

"Umm… I… I n-need your help with something."

_Phew…_ Her own relief was expected, but unexpected at the same time. _I always thought that my love life would be close to nonexistent… not that I was planning on being an object of affection for two girls, but it seems as if I've gotten used to the idea…_

Apparently Kagami's sigh of relief didn't go unnoticed as Miyuki looked at her questioningly.

"Ah, umm… I was afraid that it'd be another c-confession," feeling her face heat up with every uttered syllable, the twin-tailed girl tried her best to explain.

"Umm, well… actually, I _do_ have someone that I like," apparently Miyuki seemed to have found that her shoes were something in much need for observation.

"Eh?"

"But, I don't really know how I should tell them…" the glasses wearing girl looked up at her with surprising determination, "Kagami-san, you have experience on this subject, right? Could you help me… umm… p-practice confessing?"

"What? B-But I've never c-confessed to anyone, it's just those two that…"_ I guess that __**does**__ kind of count as experience, doesn't it?_ "… Fine… although I don't think I'll be able to help much, I'll do my best," Miyuki looked more relieved at her words than Kagami had ever seen her before.

_But how do you even go about practicing love confessions?_ Clearly, there were some flaws in this plan.

Although this was a very cliché place for confessing – at least in anime – it probably wasn't the best location for practicing to confess in real life. So they decided to postpone the actual practicing until they found a more suitable place.

---(Konata POV)

_Where is she!?_ Konata almost yelled out the thought in her frustration.

She'd gone to Kagami's classroom, only to hear from Ayano that she'd already left, Misao had attempted to follow her, but Kagami had had a head start. Not too long afterwards, Konata came across a very confused looking Misao, who had no idea of where the twin-tailed girl had run off to.

Konata was now feeling very unsettled, not only had Kagami successfully avoided both of them, foiling their plans of escorting her home, but she'd done it in a way that made her think that she'd done it to meet someone _without_ them being present.

There were many reasons as to why she wouldn't want her two suitors with her when she talked with someone, but one of the more doubtful – but not completely impossible – possibilities was gnawing away at the short otaku. A love confession of some sort.

As the thought passed through her head, Konata had to resist a sudden urge to bang her head against a nearby wall until it was forgotten.

Misao seemed to have a similar thought pattern, but not the same amount of control, Konata noted, as the fanged girl actually did begin to bang her head against a wall.

It proved to be somewhat difficult to stop the girl from hurting herself, which was a little surprising since Konata was used to being the most athletic one amongst her friends. She succeeded anyway, but as a result, the two of them ended up collapsing on the hallway floor.

It was during this unusual amount of body contact, that a certain somebody showed up.

"Kona-chan?" Tsukasa looked at the two of them in obvious confusion.

"Ah, imouto," Misao looked up at the new arrival, "You wouldn't happen to know where Hiiragi ran off to would you?" she shook her head, and both of the girls at the floor let out sounds of frustration – exactly what these sounds _were_ varied, but they were all very frustrated noises.

"You wouldn't happen to have seen Yuki-chan, would you?" Konata looked up at her in confusion.

"Miyuki-san is missing too?" the girl nodded.

"I wonder if those two are together…?" Misao's question made the air freeze solid as she slowly began to realize the implications of this, Konata's reaction was expected, but it seemed as if Tsukasa seemed somewhat uncomfortable with the thought as well.

The three of them split up without uttering another word, all three of them intent on finding the two girls.

---(Kagami POV)

It had been surprisingly easy to get to Miyuki's house without encountering either of the overenthusiastic girls, hopefully Kagami hadn't used up all of her luck for this year to make it happen.

The reason that they'd chosen Miyuki's house had been simple. Reason number one, Miyuki felt safe here and so she would have an easier time with practicing. Reason Number two, Konata and Misao would definitely look at the Hiiragi household for her sooner or later, and if either of them happened to walk in somewhere halfway through… it would result in one _gigantic_ mess.

"I-… v… ou…"

Kagami sighed, she'd been trying to get Miyuki to speak loud enough for her voice to actually be audible to the receiver of her confession, but so far she hadn't been making any progress whatsoever.

Looking quite desperate and fidgety, the dentist-fearing girl tried once again to actually speak, not mumble or whisper – or both at the same time – like she'd done the previous times.

She failed.

This was getting them nowhere, fast.

Kagami tried to think of anything that might allow the person listening to actually hear what was being said, but other than telling her to say it directly into the persons ear – which was something she'd probably fail at, in one way or another – she couldn't think of anything.

So instead of continuing pointlessly, Kagami decided that they should have a break. During said break, Kagami mentioned once more that it was sort of important that the person was actually able to _hear_ what was being said.

After a while they got back to their original positions – think cliché confession scene, it was the only thing they could come up with – and started again.

"… I-…" just as Kagami opened her mouth to tell her that she couldn't hear her this time either, something happened, "I-I love you!"

Miyuki's face was completely red – the kind of red that shouldn't be possible for a human to have on their face unless someone dumped a liter of ketchup over them – as she was finally able utter those words.

Kagami felt as if time itself had suddenly grounded to a halt, been put in reverse and was now replaying her childhood memories. It was during this moment of perfect stillness that a thought passed through the strict girl's head. _So this is what they mean when they say that your life flashes before your eyes, huh?_

There was another voice – a voice that belonged to neither of the two girls – that had made its presence known during this brief flash of audibility.

"Yuki-chan, are you in there…?" the inquisitive voice had been largely drowned out by Miyuki, but it was enough to make both of them turn towards it's owner that was standing in the halfway opened doorway.

All of this lead to the brief moment of absolute stillness where all three of the girls tried to understand what had just happened – Tsukasa seemed to be having the hardest time, although Miyuki's face of complete panic certainly earned her points… _I'm awarding them points for their bewilderment now? It must be that damn midget's fault, I swear she's rubbing off on me somehow._

This moment was followed by frantic activity.

Miyuki looked like she was ready to faint on the spot, but seemed to settle for collapsing in an embarrassed heap on the floor.

Tsukasa hurriedly said something about being sorry for disturbing them, and then shut the door and – from the sound of her footsteps – took off running.

Kagami, being a veteran of snapping out of her awkwardness due to the annoying suitor duo that kept following her around, reacted quickly. Almost as soon as Tsukasa closed the door, Kagami slammed it back open again and took off after her, determined to explain at least _this_ recent, strange situation to her little sister.

Despite Kagami's quick reaction time, Tsukasa somehow managed to keep her head start, keeping the usually un-athletic girl just out of reach.

When she finally caught up with her, she was surprised to note that they'd run a lot farther than her little sister would've been able to cope with – even at her normal speed. _That's a little… weird…_ But since she was in the middle of something at the moment, she ignored the thought.

"Tsukasa!" her breath caught in her throat, but she continued anyway, "I was helping her practice confessing," this brought a slight reaction from the girl that had almost collapsed on the sidewalk, "She asked me since I've… already…" she could feel her face grow hot, and decided not to mention the duo competing for her affection out loud.

"Eh?" though she seemed to have been relieved at hearing that she hadn't interrupted her friend's confession to her sister, she seemed slightly unsettled about something, "Yuki-chan… has someone she lo-loves…?" it was clear by her eyes that she was asking her sister how much she knew about this subject.

"Well, I guess," sighing as she felt that a crisis had been averted, "But she wouldn't tell me who it was…" Tsukasa looked vaguely understanding, and then she smiled a little.

"Does that mean that I'm the only one, out of the four of us, who still hasn't got a shot at romance?"

"Huh…?" it took some time for the twin-tailed girl to think of the meaning behind these seemingly innocent words, "Why are you classifying Konata and I as having romance?"

"Well… she did confess to you, didn't she?"

"That hardly classifies as romance," this comment earned a small pout from the short-haired girl.

"Onee-chan, just because you didn't _accept_ her confession, doesn't mean that she isn't in love with you, you know," staring at her suddenly mature-sounding airhead of a sister, Kagami could only gape in surprise.

---(Hiyori POV)

Konata being friendly with Misao? Clearly this needed some sort of investigation.

Hiyori had been trying to come up with reasons for this oddness for quite some time now, and so far, she'd been failing miserably. As for the reason for her constant failures, that was an obvious one.

_No matter how you look at it, they just really don't match as a couple! So, why do all of these strange situations keep popping up in my head!?_ It had proven somewhat difficult for her to think of the problem at hand without zoning out. _Damn this perversion of mine!_

Fighting back another hallucination – this one involving a very disturbing amount of rope – Hiyori went over the situation again.

Misao and Konata, once mortal enemies, now seemed to have become close friends. _Wait, why were they enemies in the first place?_ Trying to think of the few times she'd met Misao, she soon realized that she would usually complain about something that had to do with Kagami.

_A love triangle!?_ As images of the three girls popped into her head, she came to the conclusion that something like that – although absolutely awesome if it was true – couldn't _possibly_ happen in real life. _Waah, now I'm feeling really disappointed for some reason…_

Thus she made a resolution to herself to – despite how ridiculous it might be – follow the Kagami-lead for now, since it was the only lead she had.

---(Konata POV)

She hadn't been able to find Kagami, despite going to her house together with Misao. This made Konata even more sure that Miyuki was somehow involved with her disappearance, the tsundere wouldn't suddenly take off with someone she didn't know, but before she'd had a chance of telling this to Misao, Kagami's mother told her that Sojirou had called, telling her that if she showed up she should be reminded to hurry home.

Misao had been confused by the message, but the small otaku had immediately remembered something of dire importance. There was a new release today.

Needless to say, she never had a chance of telling the fanged girl anything about her conclusion of Kagami's location, since – after a brief 'thank you', and 'see you later' – she set off running – at full speed.

A few hours later – the exact number is classified information – Konata had once again returned home, and was just about to log into an RPG, when she was disturbed by a phone call.

It was only the moment she saw who was calling, that she finally remembered what had happened earlier that the day. She picked up and couldn't help but smile a little as a familiar voice scolded her for not answering her own phone.

Kagami sounded a little uncomfortable as she managed to piece together an apology for running off without them earlier, something about Miyuki needing her help for something private – Konata tried to press the matter, but it proved futile.

Somewhere along the way, the subject was diverted to the kind of things they usually talked about, homework, games, and people getting their priorities straight.

It was only right before hanging up that Konata suddenly remembered something.

"Shouldn't you be calling Misao too?"

"Ah, well since mom said that you had run off somewhere, I guessed that you might not be home for some time, so I called her first," at hearing this, Konata couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

_I was hoping she'd forgotten about her completely… but, I guess that would be sort of weird for Kagami._ So, instead of voicing her disappointment, she simply said.

"As expected of Kagamin, never misses anything."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, you're still not copying my homework."

"Uwah! Kagamin is so cold!"

---

There was a special technique involved in getting up early enough to be able to get all the way to the Hiiragi residence at the same time as Kagami set off – but it shouldn't be discussed openly since there was a possibility that it would make it easier for the fanged girl who had the same objective.

Unfortunately, this technique wasn't effective enough for her to get there early enough to eat breakfast together with Kagami, but a technique like that was just wishful thinking on Konata's part.

It was still quite enjoyable to see the twin-tailed girls face so early in the morning – especially wearing that expression that was caught somewhere between surprise, confusion, exasperation, and a slight hint of a smile.

That she had to share it with Misao was a minor annoyance, the fanged girl seemed to be growing on her, and they were actually starting to get along – they did have at least _one_ common interest after all.

Tsukasa didn't go together with them for some reason – according to Kagami she'd left earlier, much to the surprise of everyone in the family – and when they arrived where Miyuki usually waited for them, she was nowhere to be seen.

Konata was beginning to get very confused about how everyone were acting so strangely all the time, the other two girls seemed to agree with her as Misao kept looking around – as if looking for something else weird happening – and Kagami had a small frown – that was proving very distractive, since it involved crinkling her nose in a way that Konata had to continuously remind herself that it was a bad idea to pounce on her – which seemed to somehow be related to her concentrated thought activity.

After the first day of walking together, an unspoken rule had been created that dictated that they weren't allowed to hold onto Kagami _after_ they'd exited the train, unless she specifically asked for it of course.

She didn't, and, all too soon, Konata was forced to go off and join her own class.

Tsukasa was already there, looking very much like she was actually doing homework of some kind. _Must be my imagination…_ Miyuki on the other hand, didn't show up – apparently she'd caught a cold.

---

**A/n:** **I'm shocked at the amount of hints to coming chapters there were in this chapter – it's been a while since I wrote it and apparently I've forgotten most of it.**


	6. Pillows and Suspicions

The Harem Route

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 6: Pillows and Suspicions

---(Hiyori POV)

Hiyori had decided to talk to Kagami before the school started – that way she might be able to get it out of her system so that she might actually be able to pay attention during the day's lessons.

She hadn't counted on what met her eyes when she spotted her exiting the train.

One girl on either side of her, both of which seemed to be flirting with her – Hiyori couldn't be sure since her delusion mode kicked in somewhere in the middle. Despite this Kagami seemed like she was, if not encouraging them, then at least not bothering to scold them for it.

_It's like a harem series where the main character slowly begins to accept their presence._ She wasn't sure whether or not she should be feeling guilty of thinking something like that, considering that that _was_ pretty much what she was suspecting them for in the first place.

In the end – since she'd been left standing in her delusion mode while they continued on their way – she'd been unable to actually ask, but she did plan on confronting her during lunch – it couldn't be _that_ hard, could it?

… Then again, she should probably think of a plan B, just in case.

---(Kagami POV)

Yesterday had been a _very_ tiring day for Kagami, something about a _lot_ of things having happened, but also because she'd stayed up longer than she'd expected – since she'd been talking to Konata.

So it wasn't very surprising when she had to _force_ herself to crawl out of her bed at the usual time – she almost wished she could act like Tsukasa and stay in bed for a while longer – but her being tired probably didn't really have anything to do with her reaction when she made her way down the stairs.

"Ah! Good morning onee-chan!"

The usually strict and proper girl, could only stare in absolute disbelief as she watched her cheerful airhead of a sister talking happily with their parents – who looked almost as freaked out as Kagami felt.

_Was Tsukasa switched with someone else while we weren't watching…?_ The thought – although severely strange and dumb sounding – seemed to make a scary amount of sense.

"Onee-chan? Are you alright? It looks as if you've seen a ghost or something…" Tsukasa's worried tone finally snapped her older sister out of her state of shock.

"A-Ah, g-good morning Tsukasa… I'm fine, thank you for worrying," stammering forth a reply Kagami made her way to the table, deciding to make sure to look into her little sister's strange behavior at a later point in time.

The meal was… just as awkward as you might guess, since all of those seated around the table kept sneaking uncertain glances at the youngest member of the household as if she might explode if they weren't careful – it kind of reminded Kagami of how they'd acted after she'd chased Misao out of the house some time back.

And since it was such an awkward meal, most of the participants in it decided that it wouldn't hurt to be a little early to whatever work they'd planned to do during the day, Kagami wasn't the _first_ to leave the table – that'd actually been Tsukasa – but since the mood hadn't improved, she hadn't been far behind.

However, when she opened her front door she had to ask herself. _Was that really the best thing to do?_ The reason for the sudden hesitation in her escape was easily located – they were standing right in front of her, looking, perhaps, slightly winded at getting there so early in the morning.

"Good morning Kagami(n)!" the two of them echoed when they saw her.

It was somewhat disturbing for some reason, it may have had something to do with how they'd managed to take an extreme detour in order to see her, since they – at least Konata, and she was fairly certain that Misao's house was in the same direction – had to partially double-back the same way as they came, in order to get to their destination.

Another reason for her discomfort might very well be that when she'd asked them why they went to such extremes, their answers had been different versions of, 'Because I want to see Kagami as much as possible, even if it's only by a few minutes.' The reason might also be connected to how Kagami had to admit that she actually _was_ touched by their openhearted affection for her.

It was strange how such an awkward, and odd, way to get to school had become something of a routine over the last few days. There were people who looked at them odd, but Kagami was either too tired, or too focused on trying to make sure that neither of the two girls attempted to grope her, to take any actual notice of them.

She actually felt a little disappointed when both of the girls – without protest – let go of her as they stepped off the train, she blamed it on the weather though – it was cold outside.

---

It had been a little more difficult than normal to pay attention during class – not as difficult as what had ended up becoming the norm since that rainy day where she'd shared an umbrella, but still pretty bad – the thought of Tsukasa's strange behavior kept replaying in her head – what in the _world_ was that girl up to?

When lunch finally arrived, Kagami packed her things and went off towards her usual lunch-destination, Misao following without hesitation – as if they'd always gone together to Konata's classroom to eat lunch. _Wait, why do I keep thinking of it as __**Konata's**__ classroom anyway? Shouldn't it be Tsukasa's…? Maybe it's just that Tsukasa is so quiet…_ Kagami doubted that, but it was the only reason that she could think of.

Tsukasa seemed to have fallen asleep in her seat, and Kagami breathed a sigh of relief – maybe her sister hadn't gone _completely_ off the deep end. Konata on the other hand, seemed to be feeling just as energetic as usual, despite how late their conversation had continued last night.

_Does she really need sleep the way a normal person does? Maybe she's developed some kind of way of walking, flirting, and groping whilst being half asleep. Or maybe I should be more worried about __**my**__ mental health, rather than my sister's…_

After a while it seemed as if Konata was stricken by a sudden spark of inspiration – Kagami had learnt to recognize these sparks since they usually resulted in something annoying and or embarrassing.

"Doesn't that other girl you usually hang out with get lonely when she can't eat lunch with you?" a surprisingly _sensible_ questioned had appeared from the small otaku's mouth.

"Hfmh?" the fanged girl looked up from her food, obvious confusion written all over her face, "Why would Ayano get lonely without me around? She usually spends most of the lunch break talking with her boyfriend on her cell phone."

The entire table actually seemed to freeze solid.

_Boyfriend!? Since when did she have a boyfriend!?_

This very awkward silence was broken as a surprise visitor appeared in the doorway to the classroom, Misao looked a little confused at Konata's almost immediate reaction – the fanged girl hadn't met Hiyori that often, since she was a friend of a friend of a friend, which is enough to give _anyone_ a headache

She spotted them almost as fast as Konata spotted her, and began to make her way to their table looking oddly determined.

Kagami wasn't sure why, but for some reason she couldn't help but feel very uncomfortable all of a sudden.

"Ah, Hiyorin," Konata was the first to speak, "What are you doing here?" she looked mildly curious, in the way she always did when her eyes were almost closed.

"Well~ there was this question…" a brief glance at the twin-tailed girl.

_I'm not sure I'm going to like where this is going…_

"How come the three of you arrives at school together?" although the questioned _seemed_ innocent enough, it was clear by the way her eyes avoided making contact, that she had a very good idea of why it might be so.

Kagami was finding herself to have completely lost the ability of speech, and simply uttered some strange noises – that she hoped didn't give away too much – whilst Konata looked a little uncertain. _Misao_ on the other hand…

"Because I want to spend as much time as possible together with the girl that I love," pain flooded into Kagami as she was faced with an almost immediate headache.

Konata choked on air as Kagami realized that the reason her head was hurting was because she'd smacked it into the table in a motion of complete defeat, Hiyori on the other hand, looked as if she was trying very hard _not_ to have a nosebleed.

"W-Well… _that_ could've gone smoother…" the small otaku was the first one to recover, and Misao looked at her in confusion – not understanding what she was talking about – the tables around them seemed to have picked up on their distress, but didn't look as if they knew what had caused it.

"Kusakabe," the fanged girl looked up at her expectantly – she really was a lot like a puppy.

"K-Kagamin, c-calm down," the only one that seemed to have noticed the unusually calm tone in her voice was Konata – who was know looking as if she was memorizing all of the escape routes, just in case.

"Don't say things like that so easily, you idiot!"

---

Misao now had a bump on her head and was sitting quietly in her seat, Tsukasa was still sleeping – how she'd managed that no-one knows – Konata had somehow managed to restrain Kagami from going on a _complete_ rampage and was now looking somewhat exhausted, Kagami was sitting in her chair, trying not to groan from a headache that just wouldn't stop, whilst Hiyori was trying her best to question her about how it felt to be the center of a love triangle.

Although some of the students had looked over when Kagami had gone ballistic, there hadn't been much of a scene – which was largely because Konata had managed to calm her down so fast, although, admittedly, she wasn't sure about how the small otaku had been able to do that – and most of them had quickly turned back to their own business.

Kagami wasn't sure about how Hiyori had so easily figured out that there was something, not only between her and Misao, but also between, her and Konata. She was guessing that it had something to do with being an otaku, but she couldn't say for sure – Konata looked too tired to explain it to her and she didn't want to accidentally give any more fuel to the strange kouhai.

---(Hiyori POV)

It had been an amazing day for the glasses wearing fujoshi. This was partly due to a new source of inspiration to her stories, and partly because she'd just learned that two of her senpais actually leaned _that_ way – meaning that whatever she thought up, might not be _completely_ out of question in real life.

Of course, she knew from Kagami's reluctant answers to her many questions that the twin-tailed girl was very reluctant to the idea, but it was still _technically_ possible that – given enough time – she might warm up to it.

Hiyori was so busy thanking any gods of otakus that she could remember – one certain hyperactive girl was mentioned at least once – that she wasn't really paying attention to where she was going. This, of course, didn't work for all that long before she stumbled into something.

… _This feels so soft…_ Was the first thought going through her head, the second went something along the lines of. _I wonder if I've somehow walked into some sort of pillow-transporter?_ It seemed kind of stupid that someone would be running around transporting pillows – especially at a school – but she was a little too absorbed in the softness to really care all that much about the lack of logic.

"You know, Hiyorin… if you like them _that_ much you could've just told me, and I could've lent them to you or something," the voice of the pillow-transporter sounded vaguely amused. It also sounded _very_ familiar.

Hiyori looked up from the softness, and realized for the first time that the idea of a pillow-transporter was just silly.

"P-Patty-chan… a-ah… umm…" she could feel her face grow redder as the seconds ticked by at a pace that shouldn't be possible with something that lasted for as short a time as seconds.

They weren't _pillows_. They were still very soft, and they were definitely being carried around by her hyperactive friend, but they were definitely not _pillows_.

Hiyori retreated and a – somewhat disappointing – distance was put in between her and Patricia's chest.

…_Wait… what's up with that? Why am I feeling disappointed all of a sudden?_ Deciding to repress _that_ strange train of thought, Hiyori began to try to think of a way to explain her behavior to the girl in front of her.

She was pretty sure she failed with that last one.

---(Konata POV)

It wasn't really all that hard to restrain Kagami, as long as she didn't actually _want_ to fight back. Konata wasn't sure exactly what had held the tsundere back at a subconscious level, but she was thankful towards it nevertheless.

Misao had gotten hit on the head, and spent most of her time sitting quietly in her chair – though there were occasional grumbling noises about pain – and when Hiyori finally decided to get back to her own classroom, the table became very quiet, everyone focusing either on food, sleeping, or avoiding the others' eyes.

"… Sorry…" Kagami's voice was almost a whisper, and she seemed to be fidgeting uncomfortably, but it cut through the awkward silence like a knife, "… for losing my temper like that…"

Misao looked up almost immediately, staring in disbelief as her face almost began to shine. Konata realized that she probably looked very similar to the fanged girl – the thought almost made her burst out laughing.

"Kagamin is so _adorable_!" Konata's remark made the twin-tailed girl's blush even deeper.

"Wow, Kagami's face turned even redder!" Misao seemed to be enjoying herself profoundly at the tsundere's expense.

"Would the two of you stop making such embarrassing comments all the time!"

The talk continued for a little while longer until suddenly, Kagami began to look confused about something.

"Kusakabe?"

"What is it?" the fanged girl looked at her curiously.

"When did you start calling me by my first name?"

"Eh?" Misao looked at her with a hint of panic in her eyes, which was understandable considering the strangely detached tone in Kagami's voice, "Ah… well… umm…" she seemed to be bracing herself for impact, "… today?"

"I see. That explains it." Kagami looked a little thoughtful before glancing at the clock, "Ah, I guess lunch break is about over."

Misao stared at her in bewildered confusion as the twin-tailed girl began to get up from her chair.

_Eh? Kagami didn't get mad?_ Somehow, it felt a little strange to watch her calmly pick up her things to get to class.

And then, she stopped.

"If you don't hurry up, you'll be late for class Misao," and then she stepped outside.

…

_Did she just… call her by her first name?_

---

_Just a little more… a little more. Come on you stupid boss, __**die**__ already!_ It's life bar was almost down to zero, she'd have won if she could just keep it up for a little longer.

"…zumi!" there was some kind of distraction, but it didn't matter. _Just a __**little**__ bit more._

"Izumi!" Konata was jolted out of her fading dream as her teacher hit her over the head, "Pay attention during class."

"Sensei that's cruel! I was _so_ close to defeating the final boss!" the small otaku was outraged – mostly because she'd really worked hard in the dream in order to get that far.

"Maybe you should cut back a little on your games, it can't be good for your health if they show up even in your dreams…" Kuroi looked at her with something like a smirk twitching at the side of her mouth.

Konata decided that this time was her loss, and settled back into her seat.

It took some time before she started to make sense of what the sadistic teacher was saying, but as Kuroi rambled on, she came to a sudden conclusion from the information that she'd gathered so far.

"We're going on a school trip!"

"Izumi, don't tell me you forgot?" Kuroi looked at her with unhidden annoyance, "The trip is the day after tomorrow."

"Whoa! So soon! I need more time to prepare myself sensei!" Kuroi blinked in surprise.

"You're going to prepare for a school trip? No slacking off?"

"Of course! I need to make a list of what games to bring, and then there's all of th-…" she was interrupted as Kuroi hit her over the head again.

---(Kagami POV)

It was probably going to take a while to get used to calling Misao by her first name, but considering how close they were nowadays – with all of the clinging – it only made sense to call each other by their first names. _Right?_

The rest of the school day proved to be largely uneventful – there were some surprised noises from Misao's direction when the subject of the school trip was brought up though – but she was still glad to have it over and done with, she felt exhausted for some reason.

The walk home was quite uneventful – Tsukasa had gone off on her own in order to check up on Miyuki – and consisted mostly of Konata making bizarre game references – many of these were somehow connected to flirting – Misao seemed content with asking what Konata was talking about – and groping Kagami whenever she let her guard down – Kagami was caught in the middle of these two – very frustrating – girls, and spent most of the time during the walk by scolding them.

Strangely, she couldn't really put a lot of effort into her complaining. It might be because she was already exhausted to start with, but she was a little worried that her two suitors might really be growing on her.

Suddenly Misao stopped, causing a chain reaction in the linkage of arms that almost caused Konata to fall down.

"Kagami, are you alright?" Kagami blinked.

"Huh? Why are you asking that all of a sudden?"

"You seem really distracted," the fanged girl looked really worried.

_That's odd… usually she never seems to pay much attention to anything… this actually feels a little flattering…_ The strict girl did her best at forcing the latter part of that thought away.

"I mean, You haven't even reacted to where my hand is, and it's been several minutes…"

_Huh? Her hand?_ There was a slight sensation of being squeezed. _I see… that explains it._ Feeling her annoyance reaching new and surprisingly high elevations, Kagami smacked Misao over the head, "Don't grope me whenever you feel like it!"

"Does that mean that it's okay if _you_ feel like it?" having finally recovered from her near-fall, Konata looked at her with an expectant sparkle in her eyes. She was disillusioned as a second smack-over-the-head was delivered safely.

They continued with their walk towards the Hiiragi household, and Kagami vowed to herself to pay more attention to the exact location of Misao's hands.

Some time passed, and then suddenly Konata stopped, this time causing a chain reaction in turn, that ended up sending Misao stumbling to keep from falling flat on her face.

"What is it this time?" she looked at the small otaku with tired eyes – this was getting old.

"Kagamin, do you have a fever?"

"Eh?" Kagami looked at the oddly serious looking green orbs that Konata called eyes.

"Whoa, the midget's right Kagami, you really do have one," Kagami blinked stupidly.

_When did Misao put her hand on my head…?_ She dismissed the thought as underestimating Misao's physical attributes – the girl was really athletic after all, it probably had some kind of connection to that.

"I'm fine…" as she started to try to shake away from the two girls, the world began to spin around her, and then it turned black.

---

**A/n:** **Woohoo! A cliffhanger! … **_**Anyway**_**, this was originally supposed to be two chapters – since it technically included two **_**events**_** – but, since they were both extremely short compared to the other chapters, I decided to merge them together.**


	7. Kagami's Cold

The Harem Route

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 7: Kagami's Cold

---(Konata POV)

"_Kagami_!" one second she'd been brushing off their worries with that cute annoyed face that she always wore when they were being a little extra clingy, the next, she'd been falling.

They'd caught her at the same time, both panicking on what to do next. Misao had looked as if she would've – without any hesitation – stolen a car if she'd come to the conclusion that it would somehow help, Konata was seriously considering it.

Then something weird happened.

Misao – still making sure that Kagami was safe from immediate harm whilst doing so – seemed to almost collapse, looking like a small child about to cry. The scene somehow managed to make all of the small otaku's panic drain away, and only _now_ did she remember that they weren't really all that far away from Kagami's house. _If we can only get her there._

"Misao," the fanged girl looked up, eyes still on the verge of crying, "can you carry her?"

There was a confused pause where Misao tried to make sense of the words, and then she nodded. Konata helped her to get Kagami onto her back, and then they began walking – Konata doing her best to keep on talking since it seemed to keep Misao from panicking.

It didn't take long for them to arrive at the house, but it still felt as if hours must've passed, and when the door finally opened to reveal Kagami's mother she ushered them inside, telling them to get her into bed.

This was followed by many different activities running parallel with each other, Misao carried the fever stricken girl upstairs, while the rest of them went about doing various other tasks that you do when you realize that a person has a fever – there was for example an abundant amount of moving towels involved.

Then there was nothing. The Hiiragi's returned to whatever they were doing prior to their arrival, except for Kagami's mother, who asked for a somewhat more detailed explanation of the events leading up to her daughter fainting. Konata tried her best to explain it to her, but she was starting to feel really tired.

As she was finally able to finish with her story, both Misao and her received what appeared to be heartfelt thanks, and as she retreated downstairs somewhere, Konata more or less collapsed in the corridor outside of Kagami's room.

"Konata," the voice sounded about as tired as Konata felt.

"Hmm?" looking up at Misao who'd sat down next to her – she was _never_ going to grow any taller, she supposed that she should just accept it and move on.

"Thanks," Konata blinked at her in confusion, and the fanged girl hurried to explain, "If you hadn't been there, I don't think I'd have been able to carry her here."

The small otaku looked at her for a moment before a tired smile slowly crept over her lips.

"Thanks for carrying her. I might be fast, but I don't think I'd be able to carry someone around so easily."

The two of them sat there in the silence on the floor of the hall, both too exhausted, relieved, and worried to think of anything to talk about.

Konata wasn't sure if one of them had done it consciously, but somehow, as she closed her eyes and darkness swallowed her consciousness, she was strangely comforted to have a shoulder to lean on – even if that shoulder happened to belong to her rival in love.

---(Kagami POV)

_It's too hot…_ The first thing that she saw as she slowly opened her eyes was a very familiar ceiling. _My room…? How did I get here?_

There was the muted noise of voices coming from somewhere outside the door, she recognized one of them as that of her mother, but two of them seemed a little hard to figure out, until she suddenly realized that it was the voices of Konata and Misao.

_What are they doing here?_ It was first now that Kagami was able to remember how her vision had suddenly turned black._ Ah, did they carry me home after I fainted? … that's kind of embarrassing, but… I'm a little happy…_

---(Konata POV)

When she next opened her eyes, Konata realized that someone had wrapped a blanket around the two of them – probably worried that they, too, might catch a cold. It was a somewhat strange feeling to wake up sitting under a blanket next to another person – waking up sitting was normal for the small otaku – but it wasn't really a bad feeling.

It took Konata an unsettling amount of time before she was finally able to get annoyed at the girl next to her – this _despite_ that said girl had been drooling on her shoulder. _I guess this shows that I'm starting to get along with her better?_ She wasn't quite sure of what to make of that.

The reason that she was finally able to summon some semblance of annoyance towards Misao, was how difficult it proved to be for her to _unwrap_ the blanket around them. _Gah! How is it possible for a person to move so much in their sleep!?_

Her question was answered as she finally managed to loosen the blanket, only to receive a knee to the stomach from the still sleeping girl. _How the hell did she __**manage**__ that!? Is that even physically __**possible**__!?_

She decided to cut her losses, and – instead of trying to wake the girl – scampered out of the blanket, crawling over to the other side of the small corridor for some kind of protection against the fanged girl's unpredictable movements.

Quickly coming to the conclusion that staying seated on the floor would be very uncomfortable, Konata began moving downstairs, detachedly wondering what time it was as she did so.

"Ah, Kona-chan," Tsukasa looked up from whatever it was that she was doing, as the small otaku entered the kitchen.

Konata looked at the air headed girl and then at the clock on the wall… Konata looked at Tsukasa, and then at the clock on the wall.

_Huh? Isn't it getting pretty late?_ Konata had never seen the youngest of the Hiiragi siblings as someone capable of staying coherent this late into the night. Admittedly, she hadn't seen her as someone capable of staying coherent for very long at all – especially if you waved something sparkly in front of her face.

"What are you making?" deciding not to mention it, the small otaku focused instead on what Tsukasa was busy making.

---(Kagami POV)

_Thirsty…_ The need to drink was starting to get on Kagami's nerves, and finally she struggled out of the bed – it wasn't that much of a struggle, with the exception of how the world seemed to have a tendency to spin whenever she moved too fast.

Walking proved to be a little difficult, but as long as she held onto something – walls, door handles, furniture and the like – it wasn't all that hard, she still had to be careful of where she put her feet though.

It took a little time to get used to, but she'd learned how to make it work relatively well by the time she arrived at her door. The next challenge was _opening_ said door. _Maybe I shouldn't wander around like this if it's to the point where I classify opening a door as a challenge? But I'm so thirsty…_

It wasn't as hard to open the door as she'd originally assumed, although it did send her stumbling into the corridor where she was able to avoid falling, only due to the helpfulness of the wall that she stumbled into. _This is such a nice wall… _Kagami thought fondly to herself. _We really should try to be nicer to it…_ It took the strict girl a moment to realize that that didn't make any sense whatsoever. _Wow… this is pretty bad…_

"Hgrphmr!" the strange snore-like hiccup noise startled Kagami a little.

_Ah, Misao…_ The fanged girl was sitting on the floor – or maybe she was lying down – a short distance away, a blanket seemed to have been draped loosely over one of her legs. _That looks kind of hilarious…_ Kagami could feel a smile tugging at her lips.

She wasn't exactly sure how she noticed the sleeping girl's slight shivering so easily, but once she did, she couldn't just leave her be. _What if she caught a cold or something?_

Slowly kneeling down next to her, Kagami did her best to tuck her in.

Getting back up proved to be a lot harder than sitting down, and Kagami might very well have spent several minutes trying to ease herself back up to her feet.

_Thirsty…_ Remembering her mission, the feverish girl began moving towards the stairs – the fact that she didn't go to the bathroom on the same floor and began to move towards the kitchen downstairs, didn't speak well for her mental capacity at this point in time.

Descending the stairs was… well it did make one of the more sensible parts of her brain wonder how she was going to get back _up_, but it was quickly drowned out.

She felt herself crack an odd smile when she finally found an actual floor beneath her feet. _Hah! I defeated the mighty stairs! I'm invincible! Muahaha!_ If she hadn't been so busy quietly mocking the stairs in her head, she would've probably begun to wonder how bad her fever really was.

Her moment of triumph, however, passed quickly. She still needed something to drink, and so her quest towards the kitchen continued.

"Kona-chan, could you…?"

_That's strange… Voices? I'd have guessed that it's pretty late, I wonder who it might be…?_ Feeling strangely hesitant all of a sudden, Kagami slowly peeked around the doorway to the kitchen. _Tsukasa…? Why is she…?_ There was a limit to the strangeness the feverish girl could handle, so she decided to ignore the lively presence of her little sister in the middle of the night.

"I've got it," the small otaku had begun to chop something – Kagami couldn't see what it was from over here.

It was strange to watch the two of them cook together – even if you ignored that Tsukasa would normally be in a coma at this time of day – it somehow reminded her of clockwork. It seemed like both knew what they _and_ the other were doing, should be doing, and had already done, by pure instinct. There wasn't much talk, only a lot of efficient-looking movement.

It was amazing to watch, and yet it made Kagami feel a little… uncomfortable? Watching the two of them work so well with each other, for some reason she suddenly wished that she had had the skills needed to be able to join them without getting in the way. It was a lonely feeling.

_Thirsty…_ The reason for her long journey finally reminded itself, breaking Kagami out of her stupor as it did so.

She wasn't aware that she'd entered the kitchen until Konata turned around and jumped slightly at the sight of her.

"Kagami? What are you doing out of bed? You have a fever, right?" she sounded genuinely worried about her.

"Thirsty," her voice cracked a little as she finally voiced the reason.

Her statement was followed by activity, Kagami couldn't really keep track of it all since part of it seemed to involve steps needed to make sandwiches rather than drinks – it was confusing. But finally she was presented with a glass filled with some kind of liquid, she was thirsty, that it was in liquid form was all that mattered for the moment.

After contemplating how nice it was to sit down – Konata had somehow managed to force her into a chair at some point – she raised the glass to her lips and felt a wonderful sensation filling her completely as it quenched her thirst.

She would've liked to ask what it was that she'd just drank, but everything was starting to go dark and heavy, it wasn't all that bad actually, having that warmth gently petting her head until she was once more swallowed by the darkness of sleep.

---(Konata POV)

_Kagami's sleeping face is as adorable as ever…_ Konata smiled at the familiar thought, watching the tsundere nuzzling into her shoulder. _And, although I can't go back on what I said earlier to Misao, she isn't __**nearly**__ as heavy as she seems to think…_

Climbing the stairs with the feverish girl cradled in her arms, however, had proven to be somewhat… ungainly. _Curse this height of mine!_

She'd finished helping Tsukasa not long after Kagami had arrived in the kitchen, and after a few half-hearted attempts at waking her – that was one of the problems with this girl, she was just too cute when she was sleeping, there should probably be some sort of law against such random cuteness – Konata had decided to carry her back to her room.

It wasn't that she was having second thoughts about it, being able to be this close to Kagami wasn't something she had any plans of regretting, for any reason, but she was beginning to realize that there really were down parts with carrying the bigger girl.

Thankfully, Kagami had forgotten to close the door to her room, so when the small otaku finally managed to get to the right floor, she was greeted by the happy notion of not having to struggle with a door whilst having both of her hands occupied.

As she began to tuck her in, a slight moaning sound slipped over the twin-tailed girl's lips. Konata froze, feeling a part of her struggle to pounce on the tsundere for making such an adorable noise, but most of her was resisting – a conscience can be such a dreadfully effective thing sometimes – and so she settled for gently brushing away a lock of her hair from the sleeping girl's face.

It felt as if she might've stood there staring at her beloved's sleeping face for several hours, but it was probably only for a few seconds, before she tore her eyes away, and slipped out the door, closing it quietly behind her.

It was first at this point that Konata begun to think of what to do next, and came to the conclusion that she had a choice to make. Wake someone up – Tsukasa had probably gone back to bed by now – and sleep on a futon or something, or grab the blanket Misao was now hogging and hoping that the fanged girl would be usable as a pillow-substitute.

"Move over," it wasn't all that hard to slip back under the blanket and wrap it snuggly around the both of them, although it _was_ a little painful, since Misao rammed an elbow into her stomach at one time.

---(Hiyori POV)**(Potential Chapter Break)**

"Eh? Izumi-senpai didn't come home last night?"

"Apparently Hiiragi-senpai collapsed on their way home from school, so they ended up staying over."

"They? Ah, I guess Kusakabe-senpai must've been there as well," Hiyori fought off her dream-mode and began to honestly wonder whether or not she should tell her confused-looking friends why she'd made that assumption… she settled for something that could be interpreted in many ways, "Well, those three hang around a lot nowadays, right?"

"Umm, I guess that's true…" Yutaka trailed off, looking still somewhat confused about… well most things.

Minami seemed to be deep in thought for some reason, Hiyori never really could tell what went through that girl's head – it was probably mutual. And Patricia seemed to be considering entering some kind of dream-mode herself. _I guess birds of a feather __**do**__ flock together… Did I say that right? It feels like it should make more sense than that… shouldn't it be the other way around? That feathers of a bird flock together, but are feather actually capable of flocking?_

… _Gah! Now my brain hurts! At least my usually fantasy mode isn't actually __**painful**__… I guess we should just stick to what we do best, huh?_

This however, proved to be something of a lousy idea… the nosebleed she acquired from imagining what fun things her three senpais could've been doing in the middle of the night – she was pretty sure most of those wouldn't be possible due to one of the threesome's members would probably be semi-conscious throughout the entire affair – was enough for her to actually be sent to the nurses office.

_Maybe I should just quit thinking things like that before something __**really**__ bad happens…_

---(Kagami POV)

_Ufphm…_ Such sounded Kagami's first thought that made sense in the last few hours. Most of these hours were spent asleep, floating in the empty blackness of oblivion, the other parts were divided between, crazy hallucination – the dream of Misao and Konata giving her a lap-dance was something she was firmly repressing as deep into her subconscious as was humanly possible – and strange thoughts that really didn't make any sense – she was still trying to figure out why someone would want an electric toothbrush that could be fused together with a hairdryer into some weird mecha on a mission to defeat, both bad breath _and_ bed hair.

The mecha thing had sounded so _sensible_ at the time, she'd even begun to think of some kind of marketing campaign for it when she'd fallen asleep again. _Konata must be rubbing off on me…_ _And here comes the lap-dance-dream again… I need to take better care of my health from now on, these things are going to be __**hell**__ to forget._

Groaning a little, Kagami finally sat up. The room looked very much as it had the previous morning, so she correctly guessed that her two suitors had somehow come to the conclusion that a sick person actually needed their sleep, though she was guessing that it was probably her mother _forcing_ them into realizing it. _Heh, I guess she seems to fit pretty well into the cliché mother-in-law…_

Another groan escaped from Kagami's throat, this one sounded louder, and much more frustrated than it's predecessor. _Why do I keep thinking things like that!?_

As she was sitting there, trying very hard not to think of anything involving some of the things that she was labeling as taboo from now on – Misao and/or Konata rubbing off on her, any thoughts remotely related to marriage, and, finally, analyzing the reason for tabooing any of the previously mentioned – Kagami realized something that awoke her curiosity.

Today was a school day._ I wonder if those two got there on time?_ This thought made the strict girl a little confused. _I hope that they got there in time… but I feel a little lonely when I think that they're already gone…_

Decisively repressing a third groan – there was a limit to groaning, even if the situation called for it – Kagami swung her legs over the edge of the bed. Getting out of the bed proved to be a lot easier than it'd been during the previous night. _I guess the fever must've gone down._

She still felt a little unsteady as she made her way to the door, a door that opened easily and didn't slingshot her against the opposite wall of the hallway. _Clearly an improvement._ Kagami looked at the place on the floor where Misao had been located during the previous night.

She wasn't there.

Kagami stared at the spot dumbly for a moment, slowly noticing how a sad kind of feeling was creeping up on her. This proved to be enough of a shock to break her out of her reverie.

_Why am I feeling sad all of a sudden!? Shouldn't I be happy that the two of them might've actually gotten to school on time?_ All of this confusion was proving slightly frustrating – Kagami blamed the fever.

---(Konata POV)

_I wonder how it could've seemed like such a good idea at the time?_ Konata crawled out from under the blanket, pain echoing through pretty much every part of her body – she blamed the headache on one of Misao's limbs.

Although she had _slept_ peacefully, waking up had proven to be a very painful experience. _Sleeping is something that should be done on beds… not on floors._ Konata grimaced as she stretched.

"Five more minutes…" muttered Misao in a sleepy voice.

_How much does she sleep anyway? It's almost as if she could rival Tsukasa…_ The small otaku smiled as an evil plan formed in her head – it's a well known fact that evil plans are very amusing to the person doing the planning.

Konata crawled over to the still sleeping girl. Leaning in she could feel the fanged girl's breath on her face, it tickled, but she was expecting that much. Trying not to grin from ear to ear, because of how difficult it would be to do this, Konata blew a small trickle of air into the fanged girl's ear.

"Hughrphm?" the noise sounded like a mix between tickled laughter, surprise, and a sleepy moan.

Konata did it again.

"Fvmerph…!" a hand swatted at Konata – who had expected that reaction, and easily avoided any potential injuries.

Konata did it a third time.

"Muphyaa!" Misao's hand settled over her ear, preventing any further interference with it, as she finally opened her eyes.

"Good morning," Konata let the grin she'd been holding back spread across her face, and made a mental note to herself that teasing a sleeping Misao was surprisingly entertaining and as such should be done whenever an opportunity was given.

"… Konata…?" the confusion was apparent on the fanged girl's face and Konata decided to explain their current situation to her.

"Yesterday Kagami collapsed on her way home, we ended up staying over, and we slept in the hallway. I blame you for that last one," the small otaku watched as yesterday's events finally seemed to come back to the taller girl.

"Is Kagami…"

"Kagami is fine, it was just a fever, nothing serious…" Misao breathed a sigh of relief.

It was at this moment that Konata suddenly remembered something. _We have school today…_ The realization of this, and what it meant for the two of them, was unpleasant to say the least – Konata didn't want to leave the feverish girl on her own, even if there would be others to look after her.

It was at this moment that she heard something very strange, she heard voices that seemed to be discussing something. It wasn't that discussing things were strange, but it seemed like the entire Hiiragi family was present and accounted for – well, except for the twins.

Konata got to her feet and began to move towards the voices, Misao didn't follow, being too preoccupied with trying to scratch her ear.

"… I still don't get it… it's just unsettling… something bad… happen," Konata couldn't hear every single word, but it seemed like the family was seriously worried about something.

"Maybe it'll blow over… couldn't actually keep this up, right?" having finally spotted them, Konata decided that eavesdropping – although an effective means of obtaining information – wouldn't be a good idea in this matter.

"Umm… excuse me, what are you talking about?"

"Ah…! Well that's…" Matsuri seemed to be searching for the right words to explain this, but she was interrupted.

"Breakfast is ready!" as Tsukasa's bright voice sailed through the corridor, resulting in a visible shiver running down the Hiiragi family's spine.

"Gah! No matter how I look at it, that's just not _right_!" Konata stared at them for a moment before she began to connect the dots.

Tsukasa was acting weird. Okay that wasn't entirely true, Tsukasa was acting _really_ weird, and her family members were _very _unsettled by it.

---(Kagami POV)

Kagami let out a sigh.

She had, for reasons unknown to her, checked the entire upper floor in search of anyone only to find that she was, indeed, alone. The realization was… not pleasant. _I think I'd actually be happy even if it was one of those two…_ Kagami frowned a little, there should be some kind of limit to feeling lonely.

She was about to return to her bedroom, but for some reason she didn't want to lie down right now. So, instead of doing what people with a fever ought to do, and rest until she got better, Kagami continued to wander around the house aimlessly.

_Huh? What was that noise?_ Kagami tried to put a finger on the direction where it'd come from. _Downstairs…?_

The feverish girl was the kind of person who wouldn't last very long in horror movies – her curiosity forced her to _check_ whenever a sound was heard, when it was almost _always_ better to run like hell and never look back. That said, it wasn't all that strange that her legs began to carry her towards the stairs.

---(Konata POV)

After having realized that going to school meant not only heaps of work that people expected her to do, but that there was no chance of being with Kagami either, Konata began to feel this distinct urge to crawl into a corner somewhere and hope nobody would notice her absence.

Unfortunately for the small otaku, this proved somewhat complicated since Misao was trying to get into the same corner.

Their conflict over the distant corner was the stuff of legends, the kind of tales that you could tell your grandchildren and they'd say "Grandma, your stories are _beyond_ weird," needless to say, it was a complete and utter tactical failure.

The rest of the Hiiragi's were already there. Trying very hard not to fight, lest their movements be picked up by the Tsukasa that was acting so strange that they were almost expecting that something inside of her brain would snap and leave her with a distinct need of killing as many of her close family members as possible.

Konata could hardly blame them, Tsukasa was at the moment cheerfully getting ready for school, school that she had already finished all of her homework to. It was definitely _unsettling_, if nothing else.

Konata decided to have a ceasefire with the fanged girl, whom she was currently trying to suffocate by pinching her nose – since her mouth was too busy trying to chew through Konata's arm to remember _breathing_, it was actually a possible outcome – until a more appropriate corner presented itself.

"I'm leaving!" for some reason, knowing that such a cheerful morning voice came from someone who wasn't normally capable of waking up before noon was, although not _quite_ as bad as it might've seemed – considering how the rest of her family were looking slightly faint – it was still pretty damn unnerving.

When the front door shut there was a visible sigh of relief coming from the unusually crowded corner, before the Hiiragi family crawled back up to their feet and took off towards whatever destination they had for the day.

Thankfully for Konata, since no-one of them seemed to have any inclination of staying in the house, they were quick to dump the responsibility of taking care of the feverish girl on the two who didn't seem to _want_ to leave. Everyone was happy about these arrangements, although Misao still looked a little strange.

---

"So if you don't eat something early in the morning, you'll turn into some kind of chewing-zombie?" Konata was vaguely amused by this, Misao was not.

"You don't have to say it like that you know…" she seemed a bit embarrassed about having attempted to chew through the furniture.

Konata had begun to cook a second breakfast – the Hiiragi family might be scared half to death because of Tsukasa's behavior, but apparently that didn't affect their appetite in any way – and did her best to cook something for Kagami while she was at it.

It wasn't all that hard to cook, but it was a little more difficult to keep Misao from eating the ingredients. This proved, in fact, to be one of the most tiring tasks she'd ever faced, so in the end she simply located a loaf of bread and crammed it down the fanged girl's throat.

Strange as it might've seemed, this was actually met with a positive feedback from the girl that should probably have been choked to death by now, considering the way that she seemed to devour the entire thing without actually _chewing_.

---(Kagami POV)

The stairs weren't all that hard to navigate, Kagami only had to keep track of exactly where she was putting her feet, which wasn't really something _difficult_, just kind of annoying.

_There're definitely voices…_ The feverish girl stopped and listened at the bottom of the stairs._ The kitchen?_ Finding it the most probable location, Kagami began to walk that way, making sure that she didn't trip over her feet whilst doing so.

She opened the door to the kitchen slightly, revealing the strange two girls who seemed to be cooking something – well Konata was, Misao looked a lot like a hungry puppy trying to remind its owner that it was _very_ hungry and would appreciate anything edible being thrown its way.

It was an odd sight. Not unpleasant, just… odd.

Kagami ignored the weirdness of that statement, and entered the kitchen. They were annoying, embarrassing, and unsettlingly perverted. But, for the moment at least, she didn't mind the thought of spending the day together with the two of them. The twin-tailed girl blamed it on the fever.

---(Hiyori POV)

When Hiyori finally returned to the classroom, it was already lunch time. Quickly locating her friends – it wasn't all that hard sine Patricia was waving with the kind of passion that made normal people worry about having their arm falling off – the fujoshi made her way towards them.

"Hiyorin!" the girl was almost knocked off her feet as the blonde-haired, pillow-carrier crashed into her. It wasn't much of a _bad _feeling, but it was definitely embarrassing, as well as being somewhat inconvenient and dangerous.

"Patty-chan…!?" trying to draw breath after the happy tackle was also proving a little difficult. _Still, these pillows sure are soft…_ The thought caused Hiyori to flinch._ I did it again! Damn it, what's wrong with me lately!?_

It wasn't that she was surprised about thinking about her energetic friends very distinct curves, it was more that she was surprised about herself being so forward. _I'm an observer, so when did I start to get drawn into the middle of things!?_ Not that she particularly _minded_, the pillows were _very_ soft indeed.

She shook that last feeling as Patricia seemed to realize that hugging a person that's gasping desperately for air isn't the ideal position, and let go of her.

It was an ordinary lunch break, although Yutaka did ask for some kind of explanation as to how she'd ended up with such a nosebleed – Patricia saved what little was still left of Hiyori's conscience by helping her divert the subject.

---(Konata POV)

Apparently, Kagami had regained her appetite. Konata had to admit that it would've worried her greatly if the food-centered tsundere she'd come to know and love, would've told her that she wasn't hungry, and actually _meant_ it.

She still wasn't really able to rival Misao, who seemed to be a living proof that there was such a thing as black holes, and that a smaller version of one were situated in her stomach.

It was an odd breakfast.

The small otaku had had many strange meals over the years – they'd been enjoyable, but if anyone asked, she was going to blame her dad – but eating breakfast with the girl you love, who is acting uncharacteristically docile, and someone who's capable of swallowing an entire loaf of bread in a matter of seconds, would be difficult to top.

Although Konata did attempt to flirt at least a _little_ bit with her tsundere – she couldn't help herself, she was just so _cute_ – they proved to be ineffective. Partly because Misao blocked some of them by spraying – whatever she'd been eating at the time – all across the table, and partly because Kagami was proving unable to follow the conversation properly – which basically meant that she smiled a sleepy, vulnerably, polite smile, and hoped for the best.

As such, it could hardly be called a _bad_ way to have breakfast – it'd even been kind of fun to see Misao choke whenever Konata had made an unusually, daring move – in fact it was easily ranked within her top three breakfasts ever – one of the others being _purely_ fictional, and involving a _lot _of innuendos.

In a way, this made Konata feel a little unsettled, she was growing to befriend her rival in love ever more, and that might very well lead to feelings of guilt when she broke the fanged girl's heart by stealing Kagami away from her. But, she concluded that since she still needed her help to keep others away from the twin-tailed girl, and so there was no immediate need to worry.

Konata easily lost track of time, and when she finally began to gather the dishes – Kagami was still feverish, so she didn't want her to strain herself, and she wouldn't trust Misao with anything even _remotely_ fragile – she realized that it was already time for lunch.

Since all of them had spent the last few hours eating, the small otaku decided that she probably didn't need to cook anything despite this – and if Misao said otherwise she'd cram another one of those loafs down her throat.

After a small discussion of potential activities for the rest of the day – Konata got outvoted on her "ero-scenes are always the answer" – the three girls settled for watching some movies.

---(Kagami POV)

Kagami _really_ didn't want to open her eyes.

She felt warm, she could feel something soft on both sides, and she had this distinct feeling that someone was breathing in her ear – which was just silly, why would anyone be breathing in her ear?

Her eyelids proved to be unusually heavy and she had to struggle to open them. When she finally managed with this, she wished she hadn't bothered.

Someone really _was_ breathing into her ear. It was only logical that there was something soft on both sides of her, as well as the reason for the comfortable warmth that had probably been responsible for lulling her to sleep in the first place.

She was lying on the sofa, this was not something she had much of a problem with doing from time to time – though her back would hurt afterwards.

Konata had somehow managed to tangle herself in Kagami's legs, but still seemed to be enjoying the sensation considering the way she smiled sweetly in her sleep – it was odd to see something other than a mischievous grin curl those lips.

Misao seemed to be pinned down by having Kagami's head in her lap, which was odd because from what Kagami had learnt from the time together with Misao was that she _always_ moved in her sleep, and now she seemed to be almost perfectly still, although if you looked at her more closely you'd realize that it looked as if she'd been trying to crawl out of the sofa, whilst doing her best in order to remove her own clothes – thankfully, they _were_ still on her.

It was at this point in time that a tiny voice inside of Kagami's head began to panic. How would she get out of this one? How could she get up without waking either, or both, of the girls? How would she explain it to anyone that might enter the room and catch her in this compromising situation?

There was the option of ignoring it and going back to sleep – which felt slightly irresponsible – or the option of waking both of them and acting like it was nothing – she somehow doubted she'd be capable of pulling that one off – or finally there was the option of waking both of them and scolding them – but for doing what, exactly?

The strict girl couldn't really decide between the options, the second one was promising, but difficult, the third one was something she didn't actually feel like doing – they hadn't really done anything to be scolded for – and the first option would feel so _nice_…

It was at this moment that Kagami realized that her eyelids were drooping again, and soon the world turned into a dark, soft, and wonderfully warm place.

---

**A/n:** **This is probably among my favorite chapters – pure fluffiness that it is. It was also a lot of fun to write a feverish Kagami, as well as the odd noises they make.**


	8. The School Trip

The Harem Route

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 8: The School Trip

---(Konata POV)

"I'm impressed Konata, I didn't think you'd be able to get to the ero scenes so soon, what with her being a tsundere and all," there was a strangely proud sparkle in Sojirou's eyes.

Konata stared at her father, trying very hard to connect the words coming out of his mouth to a reason for her _not_ to impart any physical harm on him, she was having some trouble with this, since her best argument was repercussions in the form of the long arm of the law – which, after all the time spent with her cousin Yui, wasn't something she put all that much faith in.

Sojirou seemed to somehow understand what went through his daughter's head, and began to back away, until he reached a door that he could close between them, which he then did.

Konata sighed, with her father's annoying – and perverted – bluntness, she was beginning to understand why Kagami acted the way she did. Although this was the kind of realization that would normally cause someone to feel a sudden need to better themselves, the small otaku just smiled as she remembered the way the tsundere blushed.

_She's so cute it's almost criminal…_ This caused a sudden jump in thought from Konata. _I wonder if I could dress up as police and arrest her…?_ Konata reached for some paper towels to stop the sudden nosebleed.

As the Hiiragi family had come back home, Misao and Konata had decided that it was probably time for them to return to their own homes, and so, after some goodbyes – Kagami had been asleep at the time so it hadn't been all that difficult – the two of them had set out.

The parts of the walk where they were together were unusually silent, though it didn't feel all that awkward for some reason, and when they finally split up, the small otaku actually found herself looking forward to the next day, when they'd meet again.

Even now that she'd returned home, she wasn't sure of what to make of all this, so she sat down in front of the computer and set out on another quest to save some random princess from evil.

---(Hiyori POV)

It was always difficult to find inspiration for Hiyori. She felt as if she had to declare war against the relentless armies that were her artists block, and even though Minami and Yutaka helped her with this to some extent, she couldn't help but feel guilty for using the two of them in such a manner.

But it wasn't like there was anyone she could ask to help her out with ideas, since Patricia had proved to be a lot more distracting than usual lately – something about pillows, Hiyori had done her best to force it deep down into her subconscious – leaving nobody for the fujoshi to turn to.

_It's so unfair! Even though there is a yuri triangle drama right in front of me, I still don't have any inspiration… wait… what?_ Hiyori looked up from the drawing that just wouldn't form on the paper. _That's it! I'll ask senpai!_ And with this thought in mind, the fujoshi dived for the phone.

---(Kagami POV)

Kagami stared out of the window of the school bus, sighing quietly to herself as memories of how she ended up here made themselves reminded.

After Tsukasa had rushed off – in an unreasonably responsible manner – Misao and Konata had arrived at the house's doorstep like what she'd recently come to consider to be normal, this was followed by a walk to school where shameless flirting and random groping was _much_ too common for the strict girl's liking.

It had been a very ordinary way to start the day – she tried not to think of how she'd come to accept the oddity of it all so quickly though. The problem had started when they arrived at school.

Kagami was in a different class than Konata, Miyuki, and her little sister, this meant that she had to go on a different bus to get to their destination. This was something it seemed like all parties involved had come to accept. But that was before Misao, who was actually able to get on Kagami's bus, was counted for.

If you want to make someone feel unsatisfied, show them someone who has something they don't.

Basically, the small otaku had almost caused a riot in order for her and Kagami to get on the same bus. Kagami was a little unnerved by the ease with which Konata had been able to drag so many people into the giant protest of splitting them up by classes – was she actually able to do almost anything if she just put her mind to it, just like so many teachers claim their students to be?

Thankfully, she'd been stopped by Kuroi, who'd ended the whole thing by smacking her on the head and saying that they'd be able to see each other once they arrived.

It seemed like Misao had decided against attempted groping and settled for falling asleep on Kagami's shoulder, something that was a little awkward – and embarrassing – but not something that she needed to pay any real attention to.

The strict girl had spent most of the trip looking out the window, watching as the landscaped raced by. She hadn't been able to have a conversation with the sleeping girl for obvious reasons – she was _sleeping_ – and Ayano seemed to be completely engrossed in her book, this left her with nothing to do but to slowly be consumed by boredom.

Boredom is a funny thing, you might think that you're a calm and sensible person, and then when you get bored… BAM! Sudden random impulses telling you to do something, _anything_, just to relieve the endless boredom.

Kagami was experiencing one of those random impulses right now and was fighting a losing battle, the tool needed was already in her hand, the victim was already so close by – and had done so many annoying things that no jury in the world would convict her – there was just no way she could've resisted.

An evil grin snuck its way onto the twin-tailed girl's lips, as she removed the cork to the permanent marker, and set to work on the unsuspecting victim's face.

---(Konata POV)

As Konata entered her bus, wearing a dejected face and praying quietly that the bus driver would get to their destination _really_ fast, she was greeted by its occupants as a war hero of sorts.

The small otaku wasn't the only person split up from friends by annoying traveling conditions, and many had held high hopes that her revolution would succeed, leaving them able to rejoin their comrades. When it had been foiled, they still had enough pride left in them to show the losing side a measure of their gratitude at the attempt.

Konata was like a god.

This was true for at least five to ten minutes into the trip, which was when boredom began to overtake her loyal subjects, leaving her in her normal place. In other words, she picked out her game and disappeared into her own little world of make-believe.

Well, she would've done that, if it weren't for the fact that she was still very much remembering how Misao and Kagami were alone together on that bus – who knew what kind of perverted things the fanged girl might do to her tsundere.

In the end she failed completely at trying to emerge herself into the game – she just kept _dying_ – so she began to look for other ways to distract herself.

As her now freed mind began to wander, Konata began recalling the events that had transpired yesterday, until something caught her mind. It wasn't how soft the twin-tailed girl had felt when she'd carried her, nor was it about how cute she'd been when she smiled sleepily at her.

Konata reached for her bag, there was something she'd forgotten that she was in possession of, something that she'd been able to obtain by getting up even earlier than usual, and stopping by at a certain kouhai's place before returning to her usual routine of arriving at the Hiiragi household just as the second youngest member opened the door.

She dug around a little before finding what she was looking for.

Konata stared into those sky colored orbs, mesmerized by the way they were slowly drawing closer, the hand on her thigh had begun to sneak its way beneath her skirt. Her own faced was blushing, but the tsundere was smiling slyly, enjoying this reversal of their roles, as she drew in for the kiss.

_As expected of Hiyorin, this is really great stuff…_ The small otaku smiled a little as she looked at the picture which she'd gained for all of her troubles, it might've been a fake, but it was still totally worth it.

---(Kagami POV)

"Ayano…?" Misao's groggy voice seemed somewhat confused, "Why are you laughing?"

Kagami couldn't really blame the girl – she was having troubles suppressing her own laughter – but she still tried to send discreet signals telling the formerly reading girl not to mention the reason.

"… Nothing… I just thought of… something funny…" it would've probably been more convincing had Ayano not had to take regular pauses to suppress her own laughter.

"Really? What was it about?" still seeming a little sleepy, the fanged girl still managed to show an interest in her friends mirth.

"Ah," clearly Ayano hadn't thought that far ahead, "… It was kind of an inside joke, you wouldn't understand…"

Kagami was amazed, the way that she'd been able to pull that out of nowhere was something that the twin-tailed girl couldn't hope to match – she'd been planning her responses to Misao's possible inquires for an hour or so.

The three of them made their way towards the rest of the group, a place where they'd be able to locate Konata and the others. _Or in Ayano's case… well, let's just say that she ran off somewhere and be done with it… It kind of makes you jealous if you think too deeply into it._ Kagami almost had to suppress a sigh, but then she saw Misao's face and was forced to catch her breath to make sure that she wouldn't burst out laughing.

Doing sneaky things wasn't Kagami's _specific_ area of expertise, but she still planned to do a good job out of it.

---

The look on Konata's face was pretty much priceless.

It was enough to make Kagami's well-built laughter-barriers suffer a complete, structural failure. Misao just stood there looking confused as Kagami was forced to her knees by her own laughter.

Konata on the other hand, seemed to have been frozen in some kind of ultimate shock, caught somewhere in between 'imminent hysterical laughter' and disbelief. Apparently, the small otaku hadn't expected the normally strict girl to be able to pull off a prank like this – even if it was harmless, it was still technically at someone else's expense.

Tsukasa and Miyuki both seemed to be trying very hard not to laugh, and – despite a valiant effort – failing as usual, causing the fanged girl with doodles on her face to look even more confused. This, in turn, resulted in the doodles being brought to life by the girls facial movement – this is where the two air-heads of the group finally lost it and joined the still laughing Kagami on the ground.

Konata seemed to finally break out of her 'shock mode' and a mischievous smile began to creep it's way to her lips. It was _very_ disturbing to watch, but Kagami was trying desperately to breathe at the moment so she wasn't paying all that much attention to it.

It was only now that it seemed to finally dawn on Misao that there was something on her face, which she immediately asked the most sane looking person out of the bunch, a bystander.

Her answer was some choked laughter, and an answer hinting that maybe she shouldn't fall asleep in close proximity to a permanent marker in the future.

The rest of the day had passed in much the same way that days like these usually passed, there was no really strange happenings.

Although 'normal' is hardly a word that you'd normally connect it to.

Tsukasa was acting a bit jumpy for some reason – Kagami had lately learnt to simply ignore her little sister's odd behavior.

Misao struggled for an hour or two with trying to remove the doodles with soap, water, and anything else available – her face was red like a tomato for some time afterwards.

Miyuki seemed like she was considering something of grave importance – Kagami suspected it might've something to do with their earlier training, but decided not to ask.

Konata was being Konata – nothing could make that girl change her attitude towards life.

Kuroi was acting much akin to a teacher – until someone located the nearest bar.

And Kagami was caught somewhere in the middle trying not to get a headache from it all – she failed miserably.

---(Konata POV)

It had been a satisfying day for the small otaku. Not only had she been able to spend it on a school trip together with the love of her life, her fiercest rival had been disabled by a prank that aforementioned love had pulled on her.

Well, it was _supposed_ to have been a satisfying day, but Kagami had spent a lot of time helping the fanged girl remove the doodles on her face, so much in fact, that Konata had been unable to fully enjoy what the day should've had in store for her.

But the bottom line was that the cause for it wasn't Misao, but the twin-tailed tsundere that had spent all that time trying to help her out, and she couldn't be mad at Kagami… Okay she _could_, but it felt like it was an empty anger, and it didn't last for very long – Konata blamed it on the strict girl's unfairly good looks.

In the end, she _had_ been able to commandeer a futon in the same room as her – Kagami slept next to a wall, with Tsukasa's futon being the closest one – but even here her rival had managed to follow them.

Kagami had looked slightly unsettled about the idea of sleeping when both of them were in the room with her, but had settled for telling them to sleep, think clean thoughts, and stay the hell away from her side of the room.

This of course meant the Misao and Konata was sleeping next to the other wall – as far away from Kagami as possible whilst still being in the same room – _together_.

There had been some dispute about who'd get the spot closest to Kagami, until she'd told them that if they continued to bicker she'd kick them _both_ out and they could sleep in the corridor – the issue had been settled by the two of them sleeping with their heads towards Kagami and their feet towards the wall.

Konata still remembered vividly just how much Misao tended to move in her sleep, and she wasn't looking forward to the prospect of sleeping next to her, but it couldn't really be helped.

---(Kagami POV)

Being the first one to wake up in the morning – Tsukasa was acting a little more like her usual self, although that might just be related to how she'd seemed to have had some trouble with falling asleep – Kagami took a deep breath, and began to do something she knew she would regret.

She made her way towards the two girls that were sleeping in positions that were _very_ odd – it looked almost as if they'd been fighting in their sleep – Kagami knelt down next to them, determined to wake them up.

It was at this time however, that she noticed a piece of paper falling out of Konata's overturned bag – Misao seemed to have kicked it at some point during the night. Now, the strict girl knew better than to go through the small otaku's bag – or any potential papers that were placed in it – but curiosity got the better of her.

---(Konata POV)

Konata opened her eyes. She wasn't really sure what it was that woke her up. But, some part of her brain – probably a part related to animalistic survival instincts – told her that it was very important for her to be awake, and, if possible, _very_ far away from here.

It was a confusing way to start the day, but she decided that it was probably best if she at least checked on her surroundings before attempting to dismiss it and go back to sleep.

That was probably what saved her life.

Konata had seen an angry Kagami before – it wasn't something you'd be able to forget in any given time – but it was still just as terrifying, only, this time, Konata had just gotten out of her comforting dreams, and she really wasn't ready for it.

She almost had an heart attack when she noticed the reason for the twin-tailed girl's apparent rage.

The commission Konata had ordered from a certain fujoshi was clenched tightly in one of Kagami's hands, the other hand seemed to be looking for something to harm. Not choke, not crush, _harm_. As in, it had been stripped from everything else other than it's immense thirst for blood and violence.

Konata had probably never gotten out of the bed so fast in her life – and who could honestly blame her for that, getting up in the mornings is _hard_.

Before Kagami was able to get a grip on the sudden change in the situation, Konata was already rushing out the door – even if she'd _had_ a explanation, it wouldn't have been one Kagami would accept, even under normal conditions.

The small otaku didn't remember much after that, but when she came to her sense again, she was standing outside in a vaguely familiar place, dressed only in her pajamas, panting heavily from her hard run, and Kagami was nowhere in sight.

_Well… that's good, it looks like I might survive for a little while longer…_ Konata sighed a little, she knew that the tsundere would probably calm down in a few hours, but what should she do while waiting?

The small otaku quickly realized that she was in a bit of a spot. She was in the middle of the street wearing nothing but her pajamas, without any money, or any way to contact anyone.

It wasn't that she was worried about men or anything like that – there was a reason that her dad had made sure that she'd been well trained in martial arts – it was just that it might be difficult to find any way to pass the time until Kagami calmed down, without any money to spend.

She'd considered many different possibilities, but one would get her arrested – mugging someone using force didn't sit well with the law – one would cause Kagami to harm her if she were ever to find out – stealing candy from babies wasn't nice – and the rest were either illegal or just plain unpleasant – like blackmailing someone, or sitting down on the sidewalk for hours doing nothing.

Plainly put, she needed to find something to remedy her situation, and the best way to do that?

Find something that you know, and tell them you'll pay them back at a later time.

Problems that might arise from this? Kagami might be present at their location, or already having formed an alliance with them.

So, who was there that Kagami wouldn't form an alliance with? There was Misao, because the fanged girl would probably ask her for a similar drawing containing _her_ and Kagami, leaving them back at square one. Unfortunately, Kagami would probably be present, or in the vicinity, meaning that she was also out of the question.

Muttering curses under her breath – still a little peeved knowing that the tsundere had probably burnt, or in other ways destroyed, the picture that she'd worked so hard to possess – Konata found herself looking at an entrance to what appeared to be a bar of some sort.

Normally, she'd avoid places like this, but she could swear that she'd heard that voice somewhere before…

Konata opened the door slowly, revealing a very ordinary looking bar, the kind of average place you'd have difficulties _not_ finding in a city or town of reasonable size. And in this very ordinary looking bar sat a very disheveled looking teacher, drinking merrily and laughing at the man who'd collapsed in front of her.

Apparently, Kuroi wasn't your average drinker, and you'd be hard pressed indeed to find a normal person capable of drinking her under the table.

This, was Konata's answer to her earlier conundrum.

Kagami, would never set foot in a bar, and Kuroi was _way_ too unreliable when drunk for Kagami to try and reason with her even if she had paid her a visit at some point.

It was difficult to convince Kuroi that she shouldn't drink any more than she already had, although she did have some help from the bartender who was beginning to get tired of having to pick people off the floor – or order someone to do it for him, Konata didn't plan on staying long enough to find out either way.

When they finally made it back out onto the street, Konata made a mental note that, if this ever happened again, she should at least bring something capable of pinching her nose – Kuroi _reeked_ of alcohol.

Somehow she managed to get the still slightly peeved – she'd been interrupted when she was having a blast – woman to find her a place to change into more day-appropriate clothes – _and_ pay for the clothes in question.

When the small otaku was satisfied with having found a way to make it possible for her to pass the time without anything bad happening, she allowed the now happily singing woman – who claimed she was _completely_ sober – to continue on her way to the nearest bar, which hopefully wouldn't be the one that she'd just left.

Wandering around the place – or going sightseeing, whatever you might call it – was proving to be, albeit boring, not quite as painstakingly boring as she'd originally assumed. It was however interrupted by a small growling noise – that _didn't_ come from a Hiiragi's stomach for once – convincing her that she needed to find something edible in the near future.

It was just after having completed this quest for sustenance that Konata was met with a somewhat confusing sight.

Some way away from where she was standing, and well hidden from the mass's prying eyes, stood two familiar looking girls. Namely, Tsukasa and Miyuki.

_Eh? What are those two doing here?_ Konata began to go over in her head the potential reasons, quickly dismissing the idea that would've sent a certain manga artist into a fantasy world, and beginning to line up the more probable ones. She came up with two.

Kagami could've asked them to help her find the small otaku – giving Konata a good reason for not moving from her spot until the two of them had made their intentions clear. Or they could've wandered off exploring on their own.

Unfortunately, Konata couldn't really hear what was being said all that well – there was still some distance to them, so she couldn't quite pick out what was being said – however, it did seem to be important since both of them looked much less air-headed than usual.

Apparently, Konata wasn't the only person that was having difficulty in hearing what was being said, Miyuki seemed to be having trouble on her end as well – although, from the looks of it, she also seemed almost as if she was gathering up courage for something at the same time.

This was all a very odd situation for Konata to be in, she was eavesdropping on two of her friends – to whom she couldn't speak due to previously stated and still quite plausible scenario – whilst neither of the two friends acted much like friends would normally do in a situation like this – there was no talk about food, smelly things, or of anything of similar nature.

In fact, the two girls acted very much like they weren't actually two girls. Instead the feeling they gave off was similar to the awkward silence that can only really be found in between two people that are very much attracted to the other – which was just plain ridiculous.

"I'm in love with you!"

…

Okay… not _quite_ as ridiculous as she'd originally suspected. Konata stared at the two girls who'd somehow managed to time their mutual confession down to the millisecond, it would've been funny if she wasn't busy trying to piece together what was still left of her thought process, which seemed to have broken down somewhere around the 'in lo-' part.

The two of them stared at each other, looking both shocked, happy, and embarrassed, all at the same time. And then Tsukasa moved forward, an unusual determination in her usually air-headed movements.

Konata wondered for a moment whether or not it was considered rude to watch a couple's first kiss from a hiding place, but then she quickly dismissed the though – she'd watched their confession, she might as well sit this one out until the end.

---(Kagami POV)

Kagami stared into the fireplace – she'd been surprised to find that there was one when they'd arrived – watching as the last remnants of her ink made doppelganger curled up into black ash.

It had been the obvious choice, tearing it up would only leave trouble for someone else, and leaving it alone would mean that Misao would probably catch wind of it sooner or later, and that would _not_ end nicely.

Still, after she'd gotten used to the actual contents of the image – it was embarrassing, but not _extremely_ inappropriate – she'd realized that it was a very odd sensation to see yourself as a drawing, it kind of put anime in another perspective.

Now she was watching that burn away into nothingness, never to be seen by anyone else – three people was already too many – she could imagine who'd been the artist, partly because of the drawing style, but mostly because she was the only person she knew who'd willingly draw something like that without much – if any – compensation.

She was going to have to have a talk with Hiyori when she got back.

---(Hiyori POV)

For some reason, Hiyori felt a shiver run down her spine. She couldn't really understand why, but she was quickly distracted from the sudden prick of fear by the events that transpired in front of her.

Patricia glanced over at her, surprised to see that she'd somehow been distracted in the first place – the fujoshi could hardly blame her.

Minami was standing in the middle of the chaos, a determined face set upon her handsome features – looking very much like the prince Hiyori usually had to picture in her head. Cradled safely in her arms was Yutaka, staring up into the eyes of her rescuer with a mixture of relief and tired happiness – looking so much like a frail princess, that Hiyori was considering doing a background check on her family, just to see if there really wasn't any royal blood flowing in her veins.

Needless to say, Hiyori had been sketching the whole thing when the chill had momentarily interrupted her.

---(Konata POV)

It'd been fun to see the way the two girls jumped when Konata came up to them – congratulating them and wishing them happiness as she did so – it'd also been funny to see the way they kept shooting each other uncertain glances, but she hadn't wanted to become a third wheel of sorts, so she'd left the two of them to fend for themselves after a little while.

She spent a few more hours walking around the city aimlessly until she found a place that seemed to lead directly towards the place at which the students were currently staying, she took this as a divine sign – _God, if you mess this up I'll hunt you down and teach you the meaning of __**true**__ pain _– and began her journey back towards the – hopefully – calm tsundere.

---(Kagami POV)

There was something strangely bewitching with watching the soft crackling of the fire, and it took Kagami a while to realize that she now had company.

"Eh? Where's Konata?" Misao looked very much like she had looked when she'd still been sleeping – her eyes _were_ open, but only barely – and she seemed to have the same mental capacity as if she really were still asleep.

"Konata is outside somewhere…" her voice was calm, but it was the kind of calm that would make people walk _around_ you, if nothing else. Misao didn't seem to catch on.

"Really?" looking only a little surprised – it was hard to feel surprise when you had the same thought pattern as a zombie – the fanged girl sat down next to her, seemingly happy with staring into the flames together.

Kagami could never understand either of the two girls that had fallen in love with her.

Konata would flirt shamelessly given half a chance – she would _create_ a chance if it wasn't given – but could actually act sweet sometimes, just not _often_. She was also the type of person to slowly steer a person into the path that she wanted them to walk – it was a little unsettling to watch, since it made the twin-tailed girl wonder if, and when _she_'d been subjected to it.

Misao on the other hand, seemed to be innocent by comparison – with exception of the groping – and would always be straightforward about everything and anything. She wasn't the cleverest of people – this was undeniable – but she would work hard to achieve her goal. The problem with trying to analyze Misao's behavior, was that you could sum most of her actions up with her saying the words 'it seemed like a good idea at the time'.

Kagami had tried to understand exactly what they'd seen in her – there should've at least been _something_ considering that both of them fell for her – but she'd only drawn blanks. This could lead to two conclusions.

The first would be that love truly was blind and that it could strike at the strangest and seemingly oddest moments. The second was that the two girls were both completely insane.

Personally, she favored the latter, but it seemed a little odd that in spite of their apparent madness they were able to use reason to such a degree. In the end, she'd simply given up, deciding that it was probably some sort of unholy mixture of the two.

She couldn't really understand why it seemed so… normal, to sit next to Misao as the two of them stared into the crimson flames that were dancing happily inside the fireplace. Maybe it had something to do with how there was nothing – at that particular moment – which really reminded her of their new positions, and how her life had changed so drastically since that day when she'd forgotten her umbrella.

Of course, she still knew that it _had_ changed, she just wasn't forced to pay any immediate attention to it, which was a nice change. The two of them sat there watching the fire and enjoying the calmness that seems to come naturally from being next to a lit fireplace.

It was during this peaceful moment of hypnotized calmness that two more girls arrived in the room, two girls that seemed oddly nervous for some reason – Kagami would normally have tried to figure out why, but she was feeling very relaxed right now and didn't really feel like digging through something that might make her tense up, without a _very_ good reason.

Tsukasa looked at her curiously, probably trying to figure out why she was looking so relaxed despite her proximity to the ever-groping Misao, she soon learned the cause as Miyuki began to fall under the spell of the softly crackling fireplace.

In the end, the two of them settled down on Kagami's other side, putting the twin-tailed girl in between them and Misao – there didn't seem to be any special reason for it, other than that they had to sit down _somewhere_.

There was now four girls, sitting calmly in front of the fireplace – Miyuki and Tsukasa seemed to be sitting unusually close together, but Kagami didn't really feel like thinking about it at the moment.

There was now a slight weight that had come into contact with her shoulder, the soft breathing proved her suspicion that the fanged girl – who'd never had a chance to leave her zombie-like state – had fallen asleep again with her head on the strict girl's shoulder. And it was at this moment that Kagami realized something very important.

_It feels like we're missing someone._ Her thoughts darted back towards the small otaku, and she was slightly peeved to find that she actually missed her – not by disregard for the rest of them, it just felt like there should be someone else there as well.

She lay the now sleeping girl back onto the soft pillows, and then got to her legs, walking quietly past the long-since-sleeping pair that had settled down in a really large armchair, careful not to wake anyone she pulled the door to the room open, and stepped out.

She began to move toward the big entrance, still not really understanding why she had abandoned her comfortable spot.

"Ah," their eyes met as the small otaku came walking in from the street, looking a little hesitant to be running into her so early on, her mouth opened again – perhaps in order to apologize, or mock, or maybe both – but she didn't seem able to find any words.

"Shut up," Kagami interrupted her before she could find any of her excuses, "I don't feel like talking to you," this actually caused the smaller girl to flinch slightly, though she hid it well, "So, come on, let's go."

Grabbing the stunned looking otaku's hand, Kagami set off towards the spot she'd left earlier, there was plenty of room in front of the fireplace, they'd have no problem fitting all of them.

---(Konata POV)

Konata wasn't really sure about the exact reason for being forgiven – she'd expected that she'd at least be forced to apologize, but that hadn't happened – but she decided that there was no need to bring up something that would probably just prove unfavorable for her.

The rest of the trip seemed to pass by in a flash – it wasn't really a very long trip, so it wasn't all that surprising – although there was that incident when Tsukasa and Miyuki admitted their new relationship to Kagami – and Misao, who'd also happened to be present at the time.

Kagami had looked at them for a moment, seemingly completely calm, and then she'd brought her hands up to her head and complained about how it felt as if her brain would break. It hadn't, and she'd given the two girls her blessing.

Misao had looked genially happy about the whole thing – Konata wondered if it was possible that she was just _too_ dense to be surprised about it.

The fact that Konata hadn't even blinked had however, tipped a certain tsundere off, and she was forced to explain how she knew about their relationship – the two girls looked about ready to faint from embarrassment when she began to explain how she'd seen it all happen, so she politely decided not to mention _every_ little thing, even if that would've gotten a wonderful reaction from Kagami.

When it was all over and done with, the gang had spent the rest of the trip sightseeing – though the newly formed couple didn't seem to be paying much attention to the actual scenery.

Kuroi was located in good time before the trip ended – Konata had joked about the possibility that she might've been left at a bar somewhere, and prove unable to return home – and spent the entire trip back telling the class to shut the hell up, while holding her head as if she was worried that it might split open if she didn't.

For some reason that she couldn't understand, Konata wasn't all that bothered when Kagami and Misao split from the rest of them to get on their own class's bus. She was actually so calm about the whole thing that she fell asleep during the ride – she only prayed that Tsukasa and her girlfriend would be too busy to think of trying to replicate her sister's earlier prank.

---

**A/n:** **And, the reason for Tsukasa's odd behavior is finally revealed! … I think it was pretty damn obvious, but maybe that's just me…**


	9. Kagami's PartTime Job

The Harem Route

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 9: Kagami's Part-Time Job

---(Kagami POV)

The first thing that had happened on their arrival home, was Tsukasa falling asleep. Kagami wasn't really exaggerating with this, her little sister had actually fallen asleep the moment she got home, she'd in fact barely made it past the door before she started to snore quietly.

It wasn't one of those things that you'd expect from any person her age, and the rest of the family stared at her for a while – Kagami was trying to hold her upright – before they helped carry her to her room.

Then, they celebrated.

Kagami was a little unsure of what to make of her family's sudden relieved happiness, until she remembered how they'd covered in terror when Tsukasa had been acting responsibly. After that, she glared at them for not appreciating how the younger twin must've worked hard to be so responsible – even for a moment, let alone _this_ long – then she joined them, because, no matter what she said, it _was_ nice to have her regular little sister back.

It wasn't really until this time that Kagami began to connect all of the dots in her sister's strange behavior – she was a little embarrassed that she hadn't figured it out earlier when she'd been given so many clues.

Tsukasa's big reaction when she'd mentioned Konata confessing to her – might've been related to how she'd been uncertain how the rest of the group would react.

Tsukasa doing her homework – might've been pointing towards wanting to stand on even ground with Miyuki, which was a lost cause no matter how Kagami looked at it, that girl was _smart_.

Tsukasa lecturing her about romance – might've grown from being uncertain about her own love and her own potential rejection.

Simply put, the signs _were_ there, it was just that they were so _odd_ that it actually became hard to see them for what they truly were. It didn't help that Kagami was having trouble imagining her sister in _any_ sort of relationship – she was _ridiculously_ innocent – and Miyuki somehow managing to be even _more_ innocent, was just too much for her own mental dating simulation which was now causing her to worry a little.

It was on the next day – a none school day – that something really unusual happened to the strict girl.

She was walking through town, not really caring where she went – she was avoiding the two girls that would've turned her free time into some sort of weird three-way date, and she didn't really want to experience that if she could help it – and she happened to come across something that caught her eye immediately.

There was a 'looking for hire' sign posted on a window to a café of some sort, Kagami wasn't really sure since she hadn't _entered_ the place yet, and for some reason it made her freeze dead in her tracks.

She wasn't in need of money – not really anyway – nor was she particularly looking forward to the idea of acting as a waitress, but she couldn't stop staring at the sign, as if she believed that as long as she stared hard enough, the sign would sprout wings and fly off.

She didn't really believe anything like that of course – she was a sensible young girl – but her eyes wouldn't budge.

"I see you're looking at the sign," finally Kagami's eyes tore away from the words, and fixated instead on the man that had just exited the shop, looking very much like chefs do when they're not running around in a kitchen somewhere and are instead calmly observing the world.

"Ah," Kagami hurried to try to explain that she wasn't really interested, but…

"Well, you do seem to fit the bill, and there hasn't really been anyone else," a quick smile, "I think you'll do just fine."

Kagami stared at him, taking a moment to process what had just happened. _I've got a job…? As a __**waitress**__…?_

"The shop hasn't actually opened yet, so there should be some time for you to learn some things before the customers start showing up. How about it?"

For some reason, Kagami's vision bobbed up and down. It wasn't until his smile grew even wider that she realized that it'd been because she'd nodded.

---(Hiyori POV)

There were few things that Hiyori hated more than a lack of inspiration, in fact, she wasn't sure if there was anything she hated more than a lack of inspiration – though she would feel guilty about receiving said inspiration from her classmates.

Unfortunately for the fujoshi, whatever 'god' artists were supposed to pray to seemed to be enjoying seeing her constant frustrations stemming from just that.

All in all, it was a normal, unproductive day for the young artist. It'd been so normal that she was actually slamming her head into her desk when thinking about it – there was a limit to the amount of normalcy a person could take before going insane from boredom.

There had to be _some_ way of breaking free from this everyday-day.

Hiyori looked at the white sheet of paper, that she was currently pinning to the desk with her forehead, and sighed. _I'm so bored… I think I might actually prefer school compared to this complete and utter __**boredom**__…and that __**can't**__ be good._

The fujoshi lifted her head so that she could stare out of the window, only to sigh once again. It was a non-school day, and the weather was perfect in every way.

_Fine! __**Be**__ that way you annoying world!_ Hiyori stood up so quickly that her chair was overturned and slammed to the floor in that way that makes everyone flinch because furniture weren't designed to withstand such impacts. Hiyori though, didn't have time for flinching.

A moment later, she already had her phone to her ear, waiting impatiently for the person on the other end to pick up.

She knew just the person capable of turning this day over on it's head, because, frankly speaking, nothing _ever_ happened 'normally' around her short senpai.

---(Konata POV)

Konata had attempted to spend this day-off with triggering some flags with her special tsundere, however, Kagami seemed to have been expecting this and so when she'd arrived at her doorstep – Misao had been there too, it seemed like they'd begun to think alike to a disturbing degree lately – Tsukasa said that she'd already left.

Tsukasa herself was in the middle of dressing up for something, Konata suspected that she was off to spend some time with a certain curvy looking friend of theirs.

In other words, the small otaku was coming to realize that she didn't have anything to do, at all.

When people say that it's wonderful to have nothing to do, it's not that they're in any way lying, it's just that it means that they're allowed to enjoy time-consuming things without worrying. If someone have decided to do something, only to have it not-happen, they will be forced to worry about the time that the enjoyable things consume, without being compensated for their effort by something actually happening.

Basically, Konata was now facing a day without anything to do, and she wasn't enjoying the prospect.

Misao seemed to have similar thoughts as the two of them set off from the Hiiragi house, walking in the slow, dejected way that makes it easy for people to tell that they aren't feeling all that joyous, for whatever reason.

It was during this dejected walking routine that something began to vibrate in Konata's pocket, this was an unusual occurrence – the small otaku usually didn't take her phone with her, so it wasn't something that happened all too often – and so she made that hilarious 'uwah!'-noise that is normally emitted from people-that-are-new-to-phones-going-off-in-their-pockets.

Misao simply stood there looking at her strangely – not really sure of what it was that was transpiring – while Konata struggled to answer her phone.

---

…?

Konata stared at the shape in front of her, it was like she'd died, gone to heaven, forced God into doing her bidding, and then returned to life in order to marvel at the result close up.

Kagami… was… wearing… a… waitress uniform…

These six words where the last things that passed through the small otaku's head before she noticed a strange sticky sensation on her face. When she attempted to wipe it away, her hand came back red. Blood red. Her nose was bleeding.

_Huh… I thought things like this only happened to Hiyorin._ After realizing that it was pretty rude to come into a café and bleed all over the floors – especially if the person you liked might end up being in charge of cleaning up – Konata began a somewhat frantic search for paper towels, all the while, still looking at the twin-tailed girl.

Misao seemed to have been put in a similar state, and was currently looking very much like she was fainting, waking up, and fainting again, in some sort of lust-induced endless loop of perverted thoughts overloading her brain.

She was also drooling, quite severely.

Kagami looked – extremely attractive, but besides that – somewhat disturbed by the two girls' reactions, and seemed to be pondering whether or not turning tail and running away was an actual option. From how her feet remained firmly on the floor, she'd reached a conclusion of refusing to retreat – which was admirable indeed.

Hiyori seemed to have been struck by whatever yuri-enjoying muse it was that usually did the striking, and was scribbling away on some napkins she'd been able to acquire – she'd been looking for them in the _opposite_ direction of Konata, and so they weren't stained red from a nosebleed, yet.

Patricia seemed to be the only person that was reasonably unaffected by the whole thing – her reaction was a normal one – and she was currently keeping herself busy by happily harassing her senpai with embarrassing remarks about what she was wearing.

In other words, if you ignored the three _really_ odd girls, you'd get one of those scenes from a manga where the main character stumbles into a shop only to find that the strict class president is actually working part-time at a maid café – only _without_ the actual _maids_.

This was of course not the case, but considering only the visual of the situation – whilst still ignoring the drooling, the bleeding, and the furiously sketching girl – it was a possible scenario.

It wasn't actually _too_ far from the truth though. The only reason that Patricia was here at the moment was because she'd stumbled upon the three girls – whom we're currently ignoring since they don't have the current brain capacity to actually do something – not all too far from this very café.

Patricia could very well have ended up here all by herself, especially since it was her that had actually suggested that they go inside in the first place.

Needless to say, Konata and Misao – as well as Hiyori, but not for _that_ particular reason – would thank her deeply for her insight into all things café-related, even going as far as to consider building a small shrine for her – the idea got rejected when Kagami refused to allow them to build a _larger_ shrine to _her_ next to it.

However, there was this one small problem with the current situation.

Patricia was being very friendly with Kagami.

Now, we should all remember that love can be a funny thing, and that nobody really knows exactly how it works. But there are few people on this Earth that would not succumb to jealousy at, at least some point in their lives.

The thing that finally stopped Misao from creating a giant puddle of drool on the floor, and that snapped Konata away from trying to shove something equivalent of an entire roll of toilet paper up her nose, was that they'd suddenly come to the realization that Patricia seemed to be flirting with the girl that _they_ loved.

There's this funny thing about stabbing someone that you have to remember, 'in order to stab someone, you must be in possession of something sharp'. _This_ was what saved the American from getting hospitalized, since neither of the two girls, that began to move towards her with murder in their eyes, had the peace of mind to actually reach out and grab something from the surrounding tables.

Hiyori – Kagami had finally given in to her desires and run off to the backroom – stared at the spectacle unfolding in front of her with the fascinated reluctance of someone watching a train wreck, her pen still moving across the white paper.

Seeing what the two of them had for intentions, Patricia seemed gain a sudden adrenaline rush – the kind of adrenaline rush that every athlete dreams of gaining.

---(Hiyori POV)

Hiyori wasn't sure exactly what it was that had happened.

One second, she'd been sitting down, sketching desperately, and the next, her hand was encased in something warm and soft, and the arm that was attached to it, threatening to break from the force of the American girl's pull.

The streets went by in a blur, possibly due to how she was still somewhat dazed by the suddenness of it all.

Patricia had – for reasons not known by the at-the-time-sketching girl – grabbed her hand before making her speedy escape from the scary looking senpais. Hiyori was happy to be holding hands with her, she couldn't deny that, although she _was_ trying to ignore some of the potential reasons to _why_ she was so happy.

The experience had been very disorienting, and she was still busy with trying to remember exactly what had happened, so she wasn't really sure for how long they'd been running when Patricia finally slowed down.

Upon stopping, the two of them spent some agonizing moments trying to catch their breaths, which wasn't all that easy for Hiyori since she wasn't the athletic type – it didn't help that the way that the 'pillow'-carrying girl was breathing heavily was disturbingly sensual, and somewhat distracting from breathing to start off with.

The fujoshi was so caught up in 'not looking at those wonderfully soft heaving things' that it took some time for her to realize that the face above them, was looking at her funny.

"I guess I ended up pulling you along, huh?"

While Hiyori fumbled to come up with an explanation for her probably curious behavior, Patricia found something else to look at.

"Well, look at it from the bright side, sure you didn't get to eat at the café, but you didn't have to sit together with those three," the blond-haired girl smiled cheerfully, "and I don't have to feel all left out. It's a win-win situation!"

It was true, Hiyori couldn't deny that although she enjoyed _watching_ her senpais, she didn't want to be alone with them – it'd just be too awkward. And she was happy to be able to spend some time with Patricia, they hung out a lot but, despite this, the fujoshi never seemed to really grow bored of it.

_Wait._ There was something weird with Patricia, Hiyori couldn't really put a finger on it, but there was definitely _something_ strange. _Is she __**blushing**__!? No… it has to be a trick of the light… I mean, why would she be blushing?_

Thankfully, this train of though was interrupted as the blond-haired girl grabbed her hand again, dragging her away towards a clothing shop she'd just spotted.

---

Hiyori's pencil danced across the paper, allowing to figures to emerge. Two figures that looked much like the ones that were standing some way away, currently occupied with… something – it was hard to see from where she and Patricia were hiding behind the corner.

There was a perfectly logical explanation for why they were hiding behind a corner – Hiyori just couldn't really think of what exactly that reason was right _now_. The two of them had suddenly caught a glimpse of the two senpais, who had at that moment been eating ice-cream, looking randomly lovey-dovey for some reason.

This had resulted in the fujoshi immediately lapsing back into her yuri-sketching, and, since Patricia had seemed intrigued by what might show up on her paper, she was simply looking over her shoulder.

Hiyori was a little hesitant about the two girls' names, but she did know that one of them was Kagami's younger sister, and that the other one often spent lunch together with them – it was difficult to forget such a moe-looking person.

It was a little strange for the aspiring artist to start sketching in the middle of the street – especially a scene like this – but, right now, she was unable to stop. She did however, feel a slight twinge of guilt for imagining all of her senpais being like that.

Unfortunately, this idyllic – yuri makes the world go round after all – moment was broken as the two cheerful girls seemed to have caught the attention of some boys. Patricia made a slightly miffed sound – Hiyori had some troubles ignoring how utterly cute it sounded – as the boys moved in with whatever pickup line they happened to have handy at the time.

Because of the distance, neither Hiyori, nor Patricia could make out what was being said, but the sudden glare that the shorthaired girl sent the boys' way was enough to make them step back, surprise evident on their faces, a surprise that was only deepened as Tsukasa wrapped an arm around the moe-looking girl.

Only now was the two observers able to hear what was being said, and what they heard made Hiyori's head spin.

"She's _mine_," the threat in her voice would have been obvious to a deaf person, let alone someone already caught off guard. It wasn't surprising to see the boys turning their backs on them, and beginning to, if not run, then at least _move_ – very – quickly away from them.

Seemingly satisfied with the effect, Tsukasa let go of Miyuki's waist, instead grabbing onto the now blushing girl's hand, letting their fingers entwine as the two of them began to move away from their position.

Patricia was openly staring, seemingly burning the image into her mind for future references. Hiyori on the other hand, had some difficulties with the whole aspect of _looking_, she just couldn't focus her eyes on anything – everything was sort of blurry – and for some reason the world sounded very far away.

There was two consistent things in this bewildering state, the color red, and the oddness of seeing Patricia's face looking down at her through what seemed a lot like the water surface – especially considering the muffled noise that she could hear when she opened her mouth, which she did in a strangely distorted-looking manner.

---

Waking up felt… unpleasant.

It wasn't that she didn't want to wake up – there wasn't an alarm, or anything like that, so she was able to wake up calmly – it was just that it seemed to be very bright all of a sudden, and there was also an oddly clinically clean smell – something an artist who's filled her room with ink is usually unable to wake to.

Taking these two factors into consideration, Hiyori determined that she wasn't in her room, and that she might want to try remembering exactly what had happened, so that she might place her current location.

_Ah, there were those two senpais…_ Everything got kind of blurry after that. And red. _Red? Could it be… I had a nosebleed? Weird, I don't remember looking for a napkin._

"Hiyorin!" Patricia's voice was so filled with relief that the addressed girl actually became a little worried. _Did something really bad happen to me?_ "You really had me scared back there…" she trailed off, looking at the girl she was talking to, "Do you remember what happened?"

Hiyori shook her head, she didn't have a clue.

"Umm, you had this _massive_ nosebleed… and well, you fainted…" the bedridden girl could feel her face heating up from the embarrassment of actually fainting from a nosebleed – let alone getting one from such a situation.

"Ah, sorry for making you worry," she decided that looking Patricia in the face would probably make her even more embarrassed, so she looked out the window.

"You don't have to apologize Hiyorin, this is one of those things that makes you, _you _after all," the blond-haired girl smiled happily at her, "And you don't have to worry about it, since I'll take care of you if it happens again. You just concentrate on getting better, you hear me?" Patricia looked down at her, and as her words reached Hiyori's ears she was a little shocked to find that they made her heart skip a beat.

It was a somehow alien feeling to look up at the blond-haired girl – which was odd since it wasn't the first time it'd happened, what with her being taller and all – and the fujoshi could feel her face beginning to heat up again.

"Then… if, because of this, I can't get married… will you take responsibility?" Hiyori blinked as her thought process began to kick in, a few moments too late to actually do anything about the words that had spontaneously tumbled out of her mouth.

Patricia seemed to be equally shocked, caught off guard by the sudden question she just stared at her for a while, until the bedridden girl could feel her face growing even redder.

"I…" she seemed to hesitate, but continued after a moment, "don't want to…"

It wasn't that Hiyori had thought that her life had turned into a yuri manga – although she _had_ admittedly been hoping for it – it wasn't that she'd embarrassed herself in front of a friend that she was attracted to – she couldn't deny _that_ part about it anymore – it was the mere thought of _Patricia_ rejecting her that brought the tears to her eyes.

The blond-haired girl seemed to be struggling for words, which was pretty unusual in and by itself, but Hiyori didn't want to see what words she'd think up to lessen the blow, turning instead towards the wall and hoping that she'd be able to hold back the tears until the awkwardness of it all would be enough to drive the other girl out of the room.

"I… want to be your _first_ choice…" her voice wasn't loud, but it managed to cut through the room as if she'd shouted.

Hiyori blinked, feeling a sudden surge in her heart as she began turning back towards the girl that was sitting on her bedside.

"Is that… too much to ask?" the fujoshi stared up at the oddly red-faced girl, and felt a slight, tugging sensation at the corner of her lips.

She shook her head, smiling through her teary eyes as the girl that she loved leaned in for their first kiss.

---

**A/n:** **And **_**everyone**_** goes yuri – well, except for Ayano. … I kind of liked the idea of their confession, and it was one of those things that I'd actually planned since the **_**start**_** of the fanfic… Anyway, hope you found it as enjoyable as I did.**


	10. Return to ‘Normalcy’

The Harem Route

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 10: Return to 'Normalcy'

---(Kagami POV)

It's scary how easily a normal human is capable of adapting to a new situation, even managing to classify it – no matter how strange it was originally – as 'normal'.

Kagami sighed. Even if she tried not to, she couldn't really deny it, she was getting used to having two girls clinging to her – one on each arm – whenever she made her way towards the school.

She still smacked Misao over the head when the fanged girl's hands got frisky, and she still reprimanded Konata when her flirting became _too_ shameless – the standard for measuring that seemed to have gone up recently – but she was getting used to it to the extent that she was actually beginning to count on it.

The strict girl was still adamant about not allowing this kind of behavior when there were other students present, but she wasn't as conscious about it as she'd once been – although she still flinched whenever Konata breathed into her ear.

Basically, it was a perfectly normal day for the tsundere. And that made her feel a little uncomfortable, because this was clearly not the kind of day that _other_ people in her surroundings would have called 'normal'.

Misao groped her, and Konata flirted with her – she tried not to let either of them get to her, but it wasn't the easiest of things to do.

Tsukasa had left before her, wanting to meet up with Miyuki – she still felt a little awkward about her irresponsible little sister having a girlfriend – on her way to school.

Konata had mentioned something about Hiyori – who she hadn't actually had time to yell at for the picture that the small otaku had asked her to draw since she was either unreachable or busy with something when she'd called her. Apparently, Patricia – who Kagami didn't really know all that well – had been following a similar pattern.

Now, normally the last two girls' escapades wouldn't have mattered to the twin-tailed girl, but recent experience had taught her not to ignore odd behavior, since it might hit you with the force of a brick wall falling down the moment you turned your head the other way.

Of course, she felt that she was probably only being paranoid, but when she caught a glimpse of the two girls walking while holding hands, she had to admit that she wasn't all that surprised.

Konata also seemed to notice it and dropped a comment about the springtime of youth, leaving Misao – who'd missed it – in a state of bewildered confusion.

After several hours of studying – and ignoring how a certain fanged girl seemed to be paying more attention to _her_ than the lessons – it was time to return home.

Her family seemed to have also gotten used to how their second-to-youngest daughter was always escorted by her two 'friends', and was actually beginning to make room for them by the dinner table. It felt a little odd, but still somehow managed to make it within the boundaries of this seriously messed up 'normal' of hers.

Basically, it _should've_ been a very strange – and as a result exhausting – day for Kagami, but it _felt_ like it was just your average school day.

---(Konata POV)

Everyone have at some point in their lives looked back at their actions and asked themselves, 'Why the _hell_ did I do that?', this is even a common occurrence for some people. Konata wasn't usually among those people though.

This might be because the small otaku actually thought through her actions very carefully before actually committing them – _very_ unlikely – or it might have been because she never reflected on her actions in any effort to better herself – uncomfortably likely. Whatever the case, she was now looking back at her previous actions and asked herself that very question.

She wasn't really sure how she'd gotten herself involved in this situation, nor was she completely sure about the events leading up to it, but as she adjusted the earpiece that Ayano had supplied the two of them with, she knew that she'd come too far to go back now.

According to their inside-man – who was technically _outside_ with a pair of binoculars – Kagami was still downstairs with the rest of her family, enjoying their normal time in front of the television. This meant that, as long as the two of them didn't make any noise, there shouldn't be any problems with their mission.

Konata felt slightly uncomfortable with the whole idea of sneaking into Kagami's room like this, but – as she'd previously stated – she'd come too far to turn back now.

Misao was keeping herself busy by rummaging through what appeared to be Kagami's sock drawer, the small otaku suspected that her reasons for this was related to the possibility of being able to rummage through Kagami's panty drawer next.

Konata still wasn't completely sure how she'd been talked into this – although, since she couldn't recall who among the three of them had been the one to suggest this, there was the possibility that she'd been the one convincing the rest – but since she'd decided to go along with it, she might as well do a proper job of it.

With these kinds of thoughts spinning through her head, Konata began her search among the more common hiding places – under the bed, behind furniture and the like.

Along the way she became a little sidetracked as Misao finally took her search to the panty drawer. In fact, she actually ended up joining the fanged girl in a duet of 'ooh's and 'aah's as all of the tsundere's different panties were thoroughly inspected.

Whilst being caught up in doing this, the two girls found themselves slowly forgetting about the whole 'keeping quiet' part of their mission.

They didn't realize the mistake of this until there was a sudden warning from their 'inside-man', unfortunately for the two girls, it came too late.

As the they scrambled to their feet, they were interrupted as the door burst open, revealing a Kagami who looked very much like the kind of demon who's fire-breath was the _gentlest_ part of it.

It was at this moment that Konata finally realized where she'd put that videogame that she hadn't played since middle school – she'd accidentally sat on it, and had been forced to throw it away – the reason for this sudden insight, was the small otaku's life flashing in front of her eyes.

---(Kagami POV)

Kagami wasn't really sure what the hell was going at the moment, but she decided that, whatever it was, it needed to stop _now_.

There is a limit to how angry a person can become before they sort of cancel themselves out, but the twin-tailed girl didn't really have that problem, since not only was she feeling an absurd amount of rage, but also an extreme sense of embarrassment – even for a non-tsundere, walking in on two people that are looking through your panty drawer with such enthusiasm is _not_ good for their blood pressure.

Apparently, the two girls had realized that they weren't in the safest of situation – she could practically _see_ how Konata's life flashed before her eyes, and Misao seemed to be having similar flashbacks – and so she was caught off guard when she, upon moving into the room, was suddenly passed by the small otaku.

From the confusion created from having Konata slip by her, Misao also managed to find an opening – although jumping out of a second story window felt somewhat _extreme_ to Kagami.

In the end, she realized that she'd lost her moment. Konata had already gotten too much of an head start, and Misao was already moving from where she'd landed – albeit looking like she was limping slightly.

The twin-tailed girl sighed and resolved to extract her revenge when next seeing them, then she began to clean up the mess that they'd left after running away.

---(Ayano POV)

As Ayano saw the two girls struggling to escape, she put her hands together in a short prayer for their safety – it wouldn't be any fun to look back and laugh at today if there'd been an actual casualty.

As she began to pack away her things, he arrived, looking just as happily confused as he'd done when he'd been hired as an accomplice to the operation – it's not every day that your girlfriend asks you to help her spy on another girl so that two other girls can sneak into her room.

He'd clearly been enjoying the confusion that her instructions had brought him, and even though he _had_ made some complaints about being used as a packhorse, he'd been smiling at the time, so Ayano hadn't really taken him all too seriously.

---(Kagami POV)

Studying had always come naturally to Kagami. Not as in 'she understood everything' but rather, it felt normal to study for her. Even she had a limit where she was unable to actually stuff anything else into her head, but that limit seemed to be much further away for her than for example her little sister.

Over the years, she'd come to rely on studying as a way to distract herself from things she didn't want to think about – Konata's embarrassing comments were usually among these things – but it didn't always work. Sometimes it became the other way around, with her being unable to study because of the things that she kept on remembering.

It was when this happened that she realized that to many of her friends, this was how it always was, and it was during these times that she actually admired her little sister's many valiant attempts at studying.

As you might have guessed, this was one of those times, but the reason wasn't what she'd thought it would be. Rather than being distracted by the embarrassment of having her two suitors rummaging through her panty drawer, she was slowly coming to realize that she wasn't actually mad at them – she couldn't deny the lack of anger after having laughed so hard when remembering their desperate attempts to flee.

_This_ was what kept her from thinking of whatever it was that she was supposed to study at the moment – she really was having a _lot_ of troubles with concentrating. _Why aren't I mad at them?_ The questioning thought was no closer to being answered now than it'd been a few hours ago.

Finally, she gave up on her homework, declaring it a lost cause, and found some paper on which to write down the worms nest of thoughts that was currently located inside her head.

There was no doubt that she _had_ been mad at the two girls when she'd discovered them, and they hadn't done anything to apologize to her, so there shouldn't be any reason for her to forgive them. But she _had_ forgiven them, and she couldn't really understand why.

She began to think of a list of all the times the two of them had done stupid things in the past: Misao had given that weird confession only to randomly change the subject, Konata had stolen her first kiss, the two of them had gotten her completely _drenched_ – the list went on in a similar manner – but for some reason, she couldn't really remember being mad at either of them for much longer than a day, if even that.

Basically, although she hadn't realized it until now, she'd never been able to stay mad at them for long. She couldn't pinpoint any actual reason, and the thought that she'd simply gotten used to it didn't seem to be correct, considering how she'd done so even from the get go.

Kagami remembered the events during the school trip and slowly a possibility began to form in her head. _No way, there's just no way… but… what if?_

---(Hiyori POV)

"Hiyori and I, are dating," Patricia's voice sounded slightly embarrassed – which was quite unusual – and Hiyori could feel her own face growing red.

The response was left hanging for a while as both of the two girls seemed to have been stunned silent by Patricia's final wording – Hiyori had tried, but had proved unable to form coherent sentences.

"Umm…" Yutaka – being the general spokesperson for the two – opened her mouth to respond, unfortunately, it wasn't the most _sensible_ of responses.

Minami looked very much like someone had lit her face on fire, and was currently finding everywhere-but-her-friends to be extremely interesting, and was caught up in studying it intensely.

"Well… actually," hesitating for a quick glance towards the taller girl, Yutaka continued, "Minami and I are dating too," the words seemed to tumble over each other in their hurry to exit her mouth.

Hiyori stared at the two girls – who were becoming a continuous red – for a moment and then picked up her sketchbook. This needed to be drawn, and there was no way she'd let the dripping feeling coming from her nose stop her.

Patricia responded in a way that seemed to suit her normal antics more than the previous embarrassment.

Laughing happily, she latched on to her two friends in a spontaneous hug.

---(Konata POV)

"I can't believe you jumped out of a second story window just like that."

"I panicked, okay? Just drop it already," Misao grumbled to herself, a tint of red coating her cheeks as she leaned on the small otaku to keep from stumbling.

Even though the mission had been a failure – which wasn't all that surprising – it felt like it was almost worth it, if only to see Misao limping along wearing a rare frown on her unusually red face. Basically, she was grumbling because Konata had laughed so hard when she'd found out how the fanged girl had escaped from the tsundere's wrath, and she was embarrassed from having to lean on the smaller girl's shoulder – it wasn't much of a limp, but it still hurt.

Ayano hadn't contacted them, which didn't surprise either of them, her words still ringing in their ears, "I'll help you out, but if you get busted, I'm leaving you to the wolves," it wasn't the kindest of things to say, but since she didn't have anything to gain from helping them out in the first place – except for a way to pass the time – it made sense.

There hadn't been any signs of pursuit from Kagami either, so they seemed to have gotten away with it – for now anyway.

They made a peculiar sight to any who saw them, the smaller girl – who was still chuckling on occasion – supporting the other – who was blushing and grumbling under her breath – while they made their way towards Konata's house – it was the closest one.

Konata might've been worried about how things would work out next time they saw the twin-tailed girl, but she felt as if there wasn't really any need to worry – though she _would_ have to keep an eye out for all of the escape routes when they met again, but that was just common sense.

---(Kagami POV)

The entire Hiiragi family ground to a halt, staring in shock at the second youngest member, as they tried to piece together what had just been said.

"Onee-chan…?" surprisingly enough, Tsukasa was the first to speak up – the confused look she was wearing was to be expected though.

"Kagami?" the second one to speak up was the daughter's mother, and although she looked somewhat confused as well, it wasn't the same kind of surprise that was written over the face of Kagami's little sister.

"I'm just curious is all," it was obvious that the rest of the family seriously doubted that, but they decided not to mention it out loud.

"I don't know about all of those complicated things…" their father finally opened his mouth, sounding about as 'eternally wise' as a gold fish, "but as long as two people truly love each other, it should be fine, right?"

Kagami felt her cheeks growing hotter as she considered asking another question, but quickly decided against it, unsure if this was really the right time or place for something like that.

"Umm…" Tsukasa called attention to herself as she seemed to be torn about something – Kagami had a guess on what this was about – "Then, if I were to say that I'm… dating Miyuki…?"

Once again, the table froze over, only this time they were all staring at the _youngest_ member of the family.

"Wow, I didn't expect that…" Matsuri was staring at her with something caught in between, shock, humor, wishing her 'good luck', and jealousy of being beaten to the couple thing by her youngest sister.

This seemed to be the general reaction, until Miki finally turned her eyes back towards Kagami.

"You've been picked up by those two girls every day for school for some time now, haven't you?" the twin-tailed girl visibly flinched, causing the rest of the family to lean back in, curiosity gaining the upper hand.

Kagami was trying not to panic, she hadn't been counting on her mother being quite _that_ perceptive.

---(Konata POV)

Since it would've been somewhat difficult for the fanged girl to walk all the way home by herself, a sleepover was arranged – Sojirou had been wearing that 'don't disturb me I'm having thoughts that could totally get me arrested' look again.

Unfortunately for the Gundam-fan, there was a call from his work, telling him to get his ass over there right away – they'd literally said that, Konata had heard it from across the room.

Dinner had proven to be just as annoying as Konata had imagined – she still remembered preparing breakfast for the fanged girl a while back – and she found herself struggling against a sudden desire to strap Misao to her chair until she was done. Admittedly, there had been some awkward afterimages showing up in her head as a result of that desire – causing her to, for once in her life, curse her own perverted mind.

Neither of the girls had had any idea of what to do, so they'd simply ended up watching a movie – anime, of course – which they then proceeded to criticize, as a way to pass the time.

This might sound like a boring thing to do, criticizing something is only fun for a certain amount of time after all, but since the two of them had trouble agreeing about which parts were the correct parts to criticize, it soon became something of an all-out brawl.

Democracy was for politicians, this was based on the 'the winner takes it all' principle.

Before they were able to crown a winner however, they were interrupted by the doorbell.

Standing there in the doorway was a beautiful girl who looked as if she was torn between freezing up, fighting, and running away. Now, there had to be a good explanation for Kagami standing in the doorway to the Izumi household at this time of day – or would you call it night? – but Konata couldn't really see it.

Concluding that there was no immediate threat – they _had_ pissed her off only a few hours ago after all – Konata invited her inside, somewhat worried about the girl's pained expression. Misao seemed equally uncomfortable about it, and had shut off the television completely.

There was silence in the entire house, all of its occupants holding their breaths, until the twin-tailed girl finally opened her mouth.

"Both of you have… confessed that you love me previously…" swallowing slightly, the girl continued, "I think it's time that I give you an answer."

The tension in the air felt as if it could be cut with a knife.

"I…" hesitating a little, she forced herself to continue, "I think I'm in love with both of you."

Konata blinked. She had a vague idea of Misao doing something similar, but she was too focused on trying to process Kagami's words.

"I'm horrible, I can't even…" Kagami looked on the verge of tears, causing a stab of pain to shoot through the smaller girl's heart.

Kagami shouldn't be crying like this, Kagami should be angry, annoyed, or just generally peeved at her two suitors. They should never bring her _pain_.

Konata wasn't really sure who of them had moved first, but that was okay, it simply meant that the two of them had admitted it. There was _nothing_ more important than Kagami. And, even though neither of them wished to hand her over to the other, they would do so without hesitation if it meant that she would be happy.

Kagami was trembling as tears finally began to fall, Konata felt one of her arms reaching behind her, bringing her even closer. She knew that the same had happened to Misao, who was now stroking the crying girl's head gently in an attempt to comfort her.

Konata kissed her on her tearstained cheek, and smiled happily. She was loved in return. Even if it meant that she couldn't have her all to herself, this alone was enough.

"Kagamin," the twin-tailed girl opened her eyes to look at her, "It's okay if you can't choose, as long as you're happy, I don't mind sharing."

Kagami stared at her, confusion obvious in her eyes, until Misao kissed her other cheek.

…

"Kagami, you taste salty."

---

**A/n:** **It took her quite some time to admit that, didn't it? This was another one of those 'kind of merged together chapters', and so the only thing left after this is the epilogue – which hopefully won't let anyone down.**


	11. Epilogue

The Harem Route

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Epilogue

--- (Konata POV)

It was enjoyable to cook breakfast.

Not because of a wish to create food in any of it's forms, but because she knew that it would be appreciated by the one that would eat it. Konata smiled at the thought. _She really is fixated on food…_

It would soon be time for her beloved tsundere to get out of bed, so she began to set the table, knowing that Kagami would enjoy eating together before her workday began.

She couldn't remember what the strict girl worked as – it was complicated and Konata had been trying to get a rare drop, so she hadn't really been paying attention to her explanation – but she knew her work hours by heart, much to Kagami's embarrassment.

Finally there was the sound of footsteps as the beautiful girl arrived at the kitchen, she looked as if she really wanted to get back into the bed, but she lit up when she saw that breakfast had been prepared. _If it weren't for me being able to snuggle against her all night, I'd be extremely jealous of food… that's probably not good._ Konata ignored the thought and simply smiled at the tsundere.

"Good morning Kagamin," there was a sudden hint of a blush on Kagami's face, and if she hadn't been paying close attention, the small otaku would've missed it. "Did you just think about something dirty Kagami?" the slight pink became a deep red.

"I wasn't!" she was clearly lying.

"It's alright if you were thinking of something dirty you know," she smiled her usual perverted smile, "because I was too."

Kagami stared at her, looking as if she was torn between lecturing her on appropriate behavior, and ripping off the smaller girl's clothes and having her way with her. Konata wouldn't really mind the latter option, but that would mean that the twin-tailed girl would be late for work, so it would probably be a bad idea.

In the end Kagami settled for the first option – though she did look mildly disgruntled about it – and they ate their breakfast in a lovey-dovey atmosphere.

When it was time for her to leave, Konata kissed her, somewhat teasingly, before waving her off. Then she went back into their bedroom. It had gotten a little… hectic last night, and there where clothes strewn across the normally – sort of – tidy room.

Staring at the gigantic bed, Konata was suddenly overwhelmed with a desire to jump in it. So she did.

As Konata's form hit the bed there was a surprised gurgle-like noise.

"Just five more minutes…" Konata smiled mischievously, having now located the reason for her return to the bedroom.

She decided to have a bit of fun at this late riser's expense.

"K-Kagami…?" Konata was quite good at faking a stammering voice, she blamed anime for that one, "W-Wait, s-shouldn't you go to wor-…" she interrupted herself with a loud moan, _dripping_ with fake pleasure.

"Goddamn it! I want Kagami too! Quit hogging her you damn midget!" an explosion of brown hair suddenly erupted from the covers of the bed.

Konata almost choked on her own withheld laughter.

"Good morning to you too Misao," the newly awoken girl blinked stupidly.

"Where's Kagami?" it always did take a while for the fanged girl's brain to start during the early mornings.

"She's already went off to work," she smiled at her, "There's breakfast downstairs, and you're going to be late for… whatever it was that you were supposed to be doing, if you stay in bed any longer."

"Eh? But you…" as the gears in her head slowly began turning, Misao began to pout, "That was low Konata, couldn't you have woken me up normally?"

"You mean like waiting for the alarm clock to go off, or yelling at you to wake up, or jumping in the bed?" there was a hint of a blush as the fanged girl realized that she actually _had_ tried to wake her up several times already, "Anyway, you should get up. You wouldn't want to be late, right?"

"I don't think I'd really mind actually…" she seemed to honestly consider it for a while before shrugging, "But I guess it would be a bit of a pain if I did…" she looked around for a while and then turned towards the smaller girl again, "You wouldn't happen to know where my clothes are would you?"

Konata laughed so hard that she almost suffocated.

--- (Hiyori POV)

America had proven to be… a lot like America. It was the best way Hiyori could think of to describe it.

She'd had her overly enthusiastic guide with her, but that didn't really mean that she saw all of the sights, this was mostly due to how the guide was overly enthusiastic about _not_ paying attention to anything inanimate.

This basically translated into Patricia doing random romantic things, in random romantic places. Not really a _bad_ thing, but it made it difficult to think of the sights – although, she was very enthusiastic about taken in the sights of some of the clothes that her love interest had taken to wearing in her home country.

They had more or less kept in touch with Minami and Yutaka, and so when they'd finally returned, there had been a party of sorts – alcohol had been banned by order of Minami, and Yutaka had actually pouted when she'd told them about it.

Hiyori had always seen the two of them as people who suited each other perfectly – a princess and her prince – but to see them living together, Minami openly doting on the smaller girl, had been enough to force the fujoshi to lie down, _despite_ having raised her resistance to nosebleeds.

It'd been difficult – but definitely _enjoyable_ – training, that had actually made it possible for Hiyori to read some of those doujins that she'd concluded to be simply 'too intense' for her.

"I still say that that pose isn't physically possible," Patricia looked over her shoulder, wearing that amused critical smile that she usually wore on these kinds of occasions.

"Want to bet?" the fujoshi smiled mischievously back at the blond-haired girl.

"Hiyorin!" Patricia's outburst of mock shock was ruined by her smile, "When did you become such a dirty girl!?"

The fujoshi faked being in thought, then she began to count on her fingers, before finally saying.

"You know that time when you ran into me, way back when?" there was a slight pause to think, then a nod, "I was one _before_ that," smiling seductively, she continued, "Now, how about that bet?"

---(Kagami POV)

It had taken Kagami quite some time to get used to the idea of her sister dating Miyuki, partly because she had some problems picturing the two of them on a date – despite having been shown a certain drawing of such an event by a certain fujoshi – and when she'd finally accepted it, she had trouble keeping her teeth from rotting from the sweetness of it all.

The two innocently cute girls were very much alike in some points – especially when comparing just that, innocence and cuteness – and it was a lot like watching one of those _overly_ lovey-dovey couples. The difference was simply that despite all the time that'd passed since they'd gotten together, they hadn't stopped doing it.

It'd gotten to the point were even Konata began to feel awkward about it, which meant that they could probably out-sweet several honeymoon couples at once.

So there were some feelings of uncertainties about having the two of them over – they'd worked around the problem by renting extremely large amount of violent and gory movies, so that they'd have a 'sweetness shock absorber' of sorts.

"And if you mention anything about twincest, you will be sleeping on the couch."

"Won't you be lonely without me Kagamin?"

"I still have Misao, and they always do tell you that it's good to vary your diet, right?"

"I'm in shock! Kagamin has abandoned me for the fanged one!"

"You really enjoy putting on a show, don't you?" Kagami looked at the smaller girl critically.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You're a terrible liar you know… although admittedly, not _quite_ as bad as Misao."

"I don't think anyone could be a worse liar than her."

"Hey! That's rude you damn midget!"

"Speak of the devil… and would you two stop picking fights so early in the morning, it's bad enough that you do it during the _night_, I've barely woken up yet."

"Howah! Kagami said something perverted!" the fanged girl looked at her with a teasing glint in her eyes – something that she'd picked up from Konata, much to Kagami's annoyance.

"We wouldn't fight nearly as much if you could be a little better at multitasking you know."

"Stop thinking weird things! I wasn't talking about _that_! I was just saying that you guys fight with each other even when you're sleeping!"

"How could we fight when we're sleeping…?" Konata seemed honestly confused about the prospect.

"You keep pinching, kicking, elbowing and shoving each other."

"Eh? How would that keep _you_ awake Kagami?" Misao looked just as confused as the smaller girl.

"I'm the one in the middle! And whenever one of you lets up, the other one gropes me!"

"Amazing! Kagamin is irresistible even to sleeping people!" as if to emphasize this statement, the small otaku attacked the twin-tailed girl with a jumping hug.

"Gah! Don't do that! What if I'd spilled my coffee!? And you've got the wrong idea again!"

---

**A/n:** **I hope you've enjoyed this story as much as I have, and I hope that I haven't let you down. Thank you for staying with me until the end, and a big thanks to everyone who've reviewed this story – I'm still feeling all giddy about the responses.**


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